I have seen enough

The public have to realise that the Councillors are their representatives to highlight issues in full board meeting. At the end of the day, it is the civil servants who have the power, the money and the mandate to carry out the work. The pressure should not be on the Councillors (if they are doing their job), but on the Local Council staff, who still come under the purview of the Public Services Department, an agency under the Federal Government. I have seen enough of the lackasaidal attitude of the local council staff, now and back then when the Selangor State was under Barisan. This is the time to ask Najib, "Rakyat diutamakan"? If you hit another pothole the next time you drive on the roads, just say with me, "Nay, my foot! Rakyat diutamakan!"

Wednesday September 29, 2010

Councillors: Guidelines should not leave room for debate

By CHARLES FERNANDEZ
charlesf@thestar.com.my

COUNCILLORS who attended the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) monthly public complaints monitoring meeting unanimously agreed that guidelines should be clearly defined in the issuance of licences so that there is no room for debate.

Councillor Ong Seng Peng of Zone 17 brought up the issue of a chicken-processing shop not displaying its licence, while councillor S.T. Chandramohan cited an example of a private hospital that was still charging parking fees despite being issued a compound.

Chandramohan called for the enforcement unit to be more vigilant when checking these premises and to ensure that the operators followed guidelines and not impose their own rules.

“Do not issue a general guideline as this could be misinterpreted. The licence should strictly spell out the do’s and don’ts of doing business,’’ he said.

He said the private hospital had been charging exorbitant parking fees when it was the job of the council to impose the parking rate.

“The hospital should have obtained approval from the council according to the private parking by-law. There must be better enforcement or else we will get a lot of illegal operators.

“We have debated on the same issues month after month. There are repeat offenders and the council must take a serious view of this,’’ he added.

Ong said most of the issues had been highlighted in July and they were being discussed again in September, which meant that enforcement was not good.

“We urge both the licensing and enforcement departments to work closely to solve this problem,’’ said Ong.

Chandramohan also voiced his displeasure over an illegal garbage area in Taman Kajang Prima.

He said the issue was first brought up in May and the council cleared the area including putting up barriers to discourage dumping.

Other issues raised were mostly about waste collection, repair work, stray dogs, poor street lightings and drainage problems.