BARELY seconds after the start of the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) full board meeting on Friday, councillor S. T. Chandra Mohan delivered his first salvo against the recent barging in of certain individuals over the Pasar Ramadan issue at the Tesco Kajang carpark near Saujana Impian.
He questioned why security guards stationed at Menara MPKj failed to prevent the group of angry traders from disrupting a meeting chaired by council president Datuk Hasan Nawawi Abd Rahman to present a protest memo.
“I was seated in a location where I was able to observe that the security guard following after the group seemed at loss over what to do,” he said.
Councillor Razaly Hassan termed the manner in which the memo was handed to Hasan Nawawi by the Pasar Ramadan organiser Omar Talib, a former councillor for four terms, as an act of provocation.
Earlier in the week, Omar had protested that MPKj refused to issue business permits to the traders although they sent a letter asking for approval.
He said he represented a group of 125 traders who had paid RM77 each for the permit included in the RM300 fee collected from every individual, of which RM200 was paid to Tesco.
At a press conference after the full board, Hasan Nawawi said the traders will be absorbed into the Pasar Ramadan organised by MPKj’s licensed organiser for the area provided they were willing to recover the permit paid to Omar.
He clarified that the actual fee was RM65 and not the amount claimed by Omar.
“The present group of traders are conducting their businesses without permits. We will act if they continue to ignore the council’s three-day notice and fail to obtain the permit as required,” he said.
“We were made to understand the traders went to Omar Talib because they were promised a better location. The location proposed by the licensed organiser is tucked away so we will shift the site for traders to enjoy better business,” he added.
The traders were advised to respond quickly to avoid stern action.
On another issue, MPKj’s licensing department was queried why the Oriental Crystal Hotel on Jalan Bukit, Kajang, was allowed to charge RM5 for each parking lot when there was no record of approval obtained to charge the rate.
“To my knowledge, no request was forwarded to the licensing committee to gain approval to charge the rate.
“Upon checking further, I discovered that to-date, the council only gave approval for a certain number of parking lots within the vicinity of the hotel to be turned into private lots at the request of the hotel,” said Chandra Mohan.
He cited Rule 10 of the Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171) which states no charge may be imposed unless the rate had been approved by the council.
Councillor Lee Learn Eng said the matter was not brought to the committee’s meeting in July although in June, Oriental Crystal was given the go ahead to turn the parking lots into private lots and this too only applied to the lots between the hotel building.
Hasan Nawawi later told the media that Oriental Crystal would be told to delay collecting the RM5 fee for the 150 parking lots including the lots at the basement level pending the approval of the licensing committee which sits again on Sept 16.
Meanwhile, the contracts of five Alam Flora domestic waste contractors will be terminated at the upcoming MPKj city services committee.
Councillors were unanimous in their decision on the matter as they found the services of the contractors still well below par.
Citing an example, councillor Lee Ah Seng and Razaly Hassan said the drains in Seri Cheras were not cleaned for three years and the same applied to the uncut grass and uncollected domestic waste.
“We have already issued several Notice to Correct (NTC). The decisions to terminate errant contractors were made at both the committee and full board levels but we are still dallying over the matter,” said Razaly.
Councillor P. Narayanan urged the council to delay payments to contractors who were unable to perform. He said the contractors should be blacklisted and a policy drawn up on the NTC.
The council president said the termination will be carried out when the committee convenes next month.
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