Thursday, September 23, 2010

Weeding out illegal banner menace

VALLEY VIEW by TAN KARR WEI

LOCAL authorities around the Klang Valley seem to be fighting a losing battle against illegal banners that are being put up at every nook and corner.

From SS2 in Petaling Jaya to Bandar Puchong Jaya and all the way to Old Klang Road and Cheras, these illegal banners are being put up by irresponsible people opting for a cheap method to advertise their products.

While illegal money lenders have been boldly putting up their banners and stickers all around the city, the latest product to make its way into the scene are sex toys and sexual enhancement creams.

If you think only these shady businesses put up illegal banners, then you would be in for a surprise.

All around towns and cities, there are banners for kindergartens, restaurants, warehouse sales, tuition centres and language courses, to name a few.

Even big-name developers, shopping malls and electronic brands have put up professional looking banners without a license.

To identify legal banners, most councils issue a license in the form of a sticker that is attached onto the banners that would be put up.

Local authorities have pumped in a lot of resources to remove these illegal banners and stickers but none seem to have found a workable and effective solution.

Most have a schedule for taking down these banners but new ones would be put up almost as soon as the truck full of banners leaves the location.

In Petaling Jaya, the task of taking down these banners was first given to Alam Flora but it could not cope and the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has since taken back the responsibility.

Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San had in 2008 started a programme where residents were rewarded between RM1 and RM5 (from his constituency development fund) for each banner taken down and brought to his office.

The programme was fairly successful and helped to rid commercial areas like Sea Park of the unsightly banners but Lau had since stopped the programme when the MBPJ came up with their own to tackle the issue.

To try to nip the problem in the bud, MBPJ offered a reward of RM250 if the public informed the council when they saw someone putting up banners and the perpetrator is caught red-handed.

While it showed MBPJ’s effort in tackling the problem, catching these sneaks red-handed is not as easy as it sounds and so far, only a handful have been caught and charged.

Last year, the Subang Jaya Municipal Council teamed up with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to cut off the lines of numbers found on illegal banners and other councils like MBPJ and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) followed suit.

The move has yet to show any signs of effectiveness because it takes some time for the lines to be cut off.

More importantly, prepaid phone lines are available cheaply in Malaysia, with most telecommunication companies offering a start-up pack for less than RM10.

Perhaps the root of the problem is that banner printing services are available very cheaply.

Even these printing companies have been aggressively advertising their services on illegal banners put up all around neighbourhoods and commercial centres.

Maybe the local authorities should make it harder for these companies to print banners by making it mandatory for them to see a banner license before printing, failing which they should be fined heavily.

Another method is to impose stringent guidelines for these banner-printing businesses when issuing a license to them.

With no effective form of measure in sight so far, the councils need to look at the problem from all angles and work together with the relevant agencies to come down hard on those involved in putting up illegal banners.

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