FOUR hawkers have been compounded by City Hall for operating illegally in Kepayan and Kolombong over the past few months, while another in Sipitang has lost the right to sell his/ her wares in the town for failing to comply with the District Council’s requirements.
This action was prompted by feedback that these agencies were not doing enough to clamp down on irregularities involving the activities of peddlers in their respective rating-areas.
A motorist spoke out about the difficulty he experienced in making a U-turn on the section of Jalan Pintas near his Kepayan Ridge neighbourhood because of the fruit-stalls on the road-shoulder. He decried these structures as being a traffic hazard.
The Council’s Enforcement team goes around Sipitang town regularly to ensure that hawkers abide by the agency’s requirements.
A Kolombong homeowner separately wondered whether it was safe to buy the food and drinks being from hawkers on Jalan Kilang, given all the dust stirred up by the many vehicles which plied up and down the stretch.
A Sipitang shopper, on the other hand, bemoaned the inconvenience which the stalls on the pavements in the town caused to pedestrians.
He said those going on foot had to be especially mindful of where they were going, lest they collided with the numerous obstructions in their way and wound up injuring themselves.
Their grievances were forwarded to City Hall and the Sipitang District Council.
A spokesman for the Licencing Department with the former authority refuted the suggestion that it was turning a blind eye on the goings-on along Jalan Pintas and Jalan Kilang.
He said multiple checks were made of both stretches once City Hall learned about the public’s concerns.
"Two inspections were made of the Kopungit area of Jalan Pintas in July,” he said.
“No stalls were spotted on the verge on the morning that licensing staff first went to the road.”
He said the Department’s personnel returned at night six days later.
“They found a durian stall on the shoulder of the stretch in this instance. The owner did not have a hawker’s licence and was compounded as a result.
“The individual was asked to pack up his goods and leave. He was also given a stern warning not to continue peddling his wares until he got a licence from City Hall.”
The spokesman said eight vendors along Jalan Kilang had received a similar warning, with notices to this affect served to these individuals.
Licencing staff have been keeping an eye on illegal hawkers operating on Jalan Kilang.
Three of this number did not have the requisite ‘Kad Kesihatan (Health Card)’ which would allow them to sell food and drinks to the public, according to him.
“Three separate inspections were made over a span of three months”, the spokesman said.
“We are continuing to keep an eye out for illegal hawkers operating on Jalan Kilang and Jalan Pintas.”
He said licencing staff had apprised their peers at the agency’s Enforcement Department (ED) of their findings during the previous inspections of these stretches.
An ED spokesman said three hawkers along Jalan Kilang had been slapped with compounds, after the Department learned about what was transpiring in this part of Kolombong.
Each of the four stall-operators who were taken to task between March and July had contravened City Hall’s Hawkers By-laws 1966 (Amendment 2008).
Under the By-Laws, offenders can be compounded up to RM500 and face the possibility of having their wares confiscated by the agency.
In worst cases, they can also be taken to court, where they risk being slapped with a maximum RM 5, 000 fine.
Meanwhile, the Sipitang District Council has withdrawn the permission given to a hawker to operate a stall in the town as he/ she had repeatedly refused to abide by the agency’s conditions.
A spokesman for the authority said the individual had appealed this decision but the Council had, thus far, refused to be swayed.
“We allow hawkers to occupy the five-foot ways outside shops in the town, depending on the width of these common areas,” he said.
“These vendors have to pay a fee and comply with our requirements in order to make the most of this privilege.”
He said the Council’s Enforcement team made regular patrols to ensure that the peddlers did not abuse the permission they received to operate stalls in the town.
