Restaurants operators are urged to strictly follow hygienic requirements of local council

Petaling Jaya City Hall is currently conducting stringent hygienic inspection for all restaurant operators in parts. Officers from Public Health Department under the supervision of councillors will carry out regular spot checks. Restaurant operators who score below 50 points will be immediately served with a mandatory notice to stop operation for 14 days. Therefore if anyone discover any restaurant which were forced to close down re-open in less than 14 days, please kindly report to the council.

Such regulation has been enforced lately in SS2 and it will slowly cover other ares and I urge all restaurant operators to strictly follow the hygienic requirements set by the council and will not entertain any complaint for less stringent enforcements and request to lower fines.

Meanwhile, the council has lately served reminder notices to traders along Jalan SS9A/1, Jalan SS9A/2 and Jalan SS9A/12 who operate without valid business licenses to submit their applications to convert their building usage in order to path ways for their business licenses application.

These traders have been operating from houses and they were all rejected their business licenses due to the fact that the buildings they are now occupying are not meant for business. Therefore, traders are encouraged to apply to convert their building usage. The council will not entertain any fine reduction if traders do not apply to convert building usage. I also urged house owners to assist their tenants in making the application.

吁请餐馆业者严格遵守市议会卫生条规

灵市政厅正在各个地方局部性严格进行餐馆卫生检查。市政厅卫生执法组官员在市议员的领导之下将会在每一个地方的餐馆进行突击检查。每一间接受突击检查的餐馆如所获分数低于50分，那么这座餐馆将会一律被勒令强制性停止营业长达14天，一天也不能少。如果市民发现任何餐馆在短于14天内重新营业，我呼吁市民向市政厅作正式投诉。

这项措施已经在SS2开始实行，以后这项检举行动将会在其他地方进行。任何被发现违反市政厅卫生条规的餐馆必须面对惩罚。本人在这里呼吁所有商家严格遵守市政厅的要求，并且一律不会处理商家要求从轻发落的投诉和降低罚单罚款的要求。

此外，市政厅最近也发出通告给所有在双溪威1路、2路以及12 路没有商业执照的商家，要求商家们在今年内之前向市政厅申请转换建筑物用途，以申请商业执照。

在这之前，由于这些商家都是在住家营业，因此他们无法申请商业执照，因为他们没有转换建筑物用途。市政厅现在公开给商家们申请转换建筑物用途，因此商家们应该把握良机提出申请。若商家们没有提出申请，日后市议会将一律不会处理降低罚单的要求。本人也呼吁这些住家的屋主主动协助租户申请转换建筑物用途。

Legalise Morning Street Traders @ SS2 Market

Two days ago, I had a quarrel with MBPJ enforcement unit this morning in SS2.

Colleague Tony Pua rang me up in the morning, saying that MBPJ enforcement raided the market and captured some goods from a illegal hawkers there.

I went to the market and only to know that the goods (some kind of shoes) being confiscated by the enforcement. Colleague Tony was already there.

I was informed that the trader and the enforcement went to SS2 police station to lodge report.

I told them to go to the police station also.

The goods were actually wrapped under a cloth, that would mean that the goods are not displayed for sale at the time of operation.

I told the officer that he could not confiscate the goods when it is not displayed even though he has a strong reason to believe that the goods were meant for sale.

I am not happy with his reply. We will bring this up to MBPJ this Friday.

We would like to call upon the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) demarcate the car park area at the entrance of the SS2 morning market, next to Hong Leong Bank as a legal market area for small traders.

We would like to highlight the plight of the small traders in front of these market who are trying to earn an honest living for the past few years. Increased enforcement activities in recent weeks have resulted in substantial loss of earnings for these traders. During weekends, these officers often park themselves in front of these traders preventing them from conducting their business. Occasionally, these traders would be given summons fining them RM250 each or worse, their goods confiscated.

We believe that the current circumstances facing these traders' livelihood is unnecessary for the following reasons:

1. As the road occupied is fairly wide, they are not obstructing traffic flow at the market whilst conducting their business.

2. There is ample parking space in the vicinity for the SS2 market, hence their presence doesn't inconvenience the morning shoppers.

3. Most of these vendors are trading legal and valid goods such as clothes, plants, fruits, costume jewellery as well as small electrical items like alarm clocks. They are not hawking illegal items such as smuggled or pirated goods.

4. Legalising the area as a valid trading zone will generate additional revenue for MBPJ via monthly rental income.

In addition, we'd like to propose to the MBPJ, as a people-friendly city council, to offer assistance to the existing traders to apply for the official licenses to trade, upon successful conversion of the space into a valid trading zone for the morning market. Many of these traders have been there for years, and are well-recognised by and familiar with the community.

We will be presenting a memo to MBPJ on Friday, during the 'Meet the People' session in the hope that the plight of these traders can be alleviated.