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Council to look into issue of roadside hawkers

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File photo: Traffic congestion scene along the roadsides due to vehicles stopping near the hawker stalls.

KUCHING: The Kota Samarahan Municipal Council (MPKS) enforcement team will look into the issue of hawkers selling by the roadside next to the Samarahan Bridge. 

In saying so, its chairman Datuk Peter Minos said MPKS thanked Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing for his comment on the matter.

Minos said the council would try to solve the problem as amicably as possible.

“It is MPKS’ established policy not to allow anyone to trade at any roadside in MPKS areas. The council enforcement team has tried very hard to enforce the rule but in vain.

“The roadside traders come today and will be gone tomorrow. However, they will come again the next day. It is an unending story.

“MPKS, like the police and Public Works Department (JKR), wants the roads safe to be safe for commuters and free from traffic jams, but the roadside traders seek to earn their living, especially now during the difficult situation of Covid-19 pandemic,” he said on Monday (April 19).

Minos added that because of the roadside trading, MPKS had previously obtained funds from the government to set up proper roadside stalls just before the Samarahan Bridge, but off and parallel to the road.

“This project is 100 percent meant to regroup and resettle the previously many roadside hawkers at the side of the Samarahan Bridge. Hawkers there are making a roaring business,” he said.

Minos then said if MPKS could get the fund from the government and the land, it would set up similar stalls at the place mentioned by Masing.

“In fact, MPKS has been thinking and talking about this particular project but it has been temporarily stopped because of technical land issues.

“But now that Masing has said it, MPKS will revisit and review the plan and the project once again,” he said.

Minos added that MPKS had also proposed to set up a proper place for hawkers at Tambirat Asajaya which was almost behind the present Tambirat roadside stalls and off but parallel to the main road.

“Thanks to the government fund and direct support from Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (Asajaya assemblyman), the project and best of its kind will be operating by the end of this year,” he said.

While always defending public policy over public road safety and convenience, he said that MPKS would not abandon its support and sympathy for the many struggling and financially strapped small traders and operators.

“It is a matter of doing it right and well,” he said.

On April 18, Masing said that he had no issue with hawkers selling by the roadside next to the Samarahan Bridge.  However, he was concerned about the sales which had caused traffic congestion along that stretch of road.

“I can understand the need of the local folk to earn an extra honest income. I have no issue with this.

“Perhaps, it is advisable for the local authorities to provide and clear a sizable area, near where they (hawkers and fishermen) are currently sited,” he said.

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