Make money by catching rats

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CATCHING rats can be a lucrative pastime, particularly when such campaigns are organised by Resident Committees who offer RM3 for every rat caught by a resident in the selected area.

This time around, residents of Taman Sri Angsana Hilir in both Zone 15 and 16 of the Residents Committee headed by Ampang councillors Nik Md Zain Nik Mohamad and Meor Rithuan Mohamed Said respectively will get to participate in the campaign.

“The two-week long campaign will end on Nov 4. Rats that are caught can be brought to the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) counter at the open space along Jalan Hilir 3 from 9am to 11am daily throughout the campaign to get payment,” Meor said.

He said that the area’s residential homes, condominiums, flats, shophouses, restaurants and food court were the target of the campaign.

Gotcha!: Two council staff holding up a few dead rats caught by some of the local businessman that were submitted at the counter on the first day of the campaign.

“We will be giving out 40 rat cages to the businesses in the area as well,” he said, adding that during last year’s campaign was a great success as about 1,600 rats were caught and some residents employed innovative ways to collect many rats at once.

Previously, MPAJ public relations officer Norhayati Ahmad said that the rats were bleached to kill off any germs and viruses before they were tied up and handed over to a contractor to be thrown at proper disposal sites.

Zain said that the RM3 reward per rat is meant as encouragement to people to participate in the campaign.

“Along the way, the activity will also instill the awareness of taking care of the cleanliness of the area,” he said.

He added that on the final day of the campaign, they will be organising a Meet The Customer Day from 9am to noon with other agencies in attendance to take note of resident grouses.

Meor also said that they intend to launch the communication for behavioural impact (Combi) project in various areas after a successful start in Pandan Jaya.

“Since a Combi team was set up there there has been no cases of dengue since January. This is quite an achievement considering that is a black area for cases,” he said.

Combi’s modus operandi is assigning each member a specific area to carry out checks on mosquito breeding areas and cleanliness.