Restore old parking rate or risk ire of people, DBKK told
Published on: Thursday, December 18, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah DAP urged City Hall to restore the old parking rate in the city or risk the ire of the people."Do you want confrontation or cooperation from the people? I have people coming up to me saying that the new rates are a burden to them. Furthermore, City Hall wants to increase the compound rate to RM500 for parking offences."That is ridiculous. Even for traffic offences, it is only RM300. Is City Hall so poor that they have to milk money off the public through these outrageous new rates?
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"This is going to burden the people more. Next year, it was forecast that there will be another round of economic crisis. And City Hall has come up with higher parking rates and more severe compounds," said Sabah DAP Chairman Jimmy Wong during a press conference here, Wednesday.Wong, who is also Kota Kinabalu MP, said DAP will maintain its stance to fight against the recently introduced coupon system and advised City Hall to take the view of the people more seriously.He said City Hall had kow-towed to their master eve so often that they lost sight of their true role, which is to serve the people in Kota Kinabalu."You want to fight the people? I am telling you this because the rakyat is behind me. You have no rakyat behind you. Lawan tetap lawan," he said.
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In terms of parking compound, he added, City Hall must produce concrete evidence when issuing summonses to vehicle owners such as photos of the vehicles when the offences were committed.There were many instances, said Wong, when owners received summonses indicating that the offences were committed at odd hours outside City Hall operating hours.
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He, however, said the people must pay the summonses if it was proven that the offences were committed."If you need any assistance with those summonses, you can always contact me, I am available 24/7. You can call me at my number 016-8260108 or my assistant who is very experienced in this thing at 019-8533683," he said.He reminded City Hall that only 30 per cent of those who were issued summonses have paid their dues and City Hall is having trouble collecting the RM7 million still owed to them.Commenting on the Mayor's statement that City Hall would consider reviewing the rates, Wong said he took the statement with a pinch of salt since there is no official word on it."Even the Prime Minister had said he would review the Sedition Act and two years later, he made a complete U-turn over that matter. It could happen here too," he said.If City Hall went ahead with the new rates which would come into effect on Jan 1 next year, Wong said the public can give him the compounds issued to them.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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