THE STAR ON MPKj - TEARING DOWN ILLEGAL BILLBOARD & HIGH MAINTENANCE

The Star has 2 articles today on Kajang as follows. If true about the billboard then it's fantastic.

Monday February 1, 2010

MPKj tearing down illegal billboards

By OH ING YEEN

ingyeen@thestar.com.my

THE Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) has begun operations to tear down illegal billboards.

The exercise started with Bandar Baru Bangi, where seven of the 20 illegal billboards had been taken down, and the remaining 13 would follow soon, council president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman said at the Kajang Municipal Council full board meeting.

“It takes three hours to take down a big billboard (6.1m x 15.2m). There is even one that is located below TNB high-tension cables,” he said, adding that there were 1,600 illegal buntings in Kajang.

Several councillors pointed out that students were playing truant and visiting cybercafes near schools.

Hassan said there were guidelines on issuing licences for cybercafes. “It has to be at least 100m away from the schools. The council has the right to take action against operators who allow students in school uniform to enter the cybercafe. The maximum fine is RM1,000.

“However, the presence of cybercafes near schools is not the main reason for students playing truant. There are other reasons for them to skip school, too,” he said.

Kajang council spends RM95,000 for upkeep of vehicles

By OH ING YEEN

ingyeen@thestar.com.my

Kajang municipal councillors highlighted the exorbitant maintenance fees for council vehicles, which totalled more than RM95,960 last year.

At the monthly MPKj fullboard meeting, councillor Lee Kee Hiong questioned the reason for such high expenses for 14 vehicles.

A Jaguh motorbike costs RM4,645 a year for maintenance.

“There are even four vehicles that costs more than RM10,000 each, and these are only vehicles used by the enforcement department, what about the other departments?

“Despite such an amount spent on maintaining the vehicles, there are occasions when we had to abort certain operations due to vehicles breaking down,” she said.

One of the council directors said the motorbikes were used for escorting visiting VIPs such as the Mentri Besar.

Council president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman explained that higher maintenance fees was needed for old cars.

“About 60% of the cars are more than 12 years old,” he said.

However, he could not provide off-hand the exact number of vehicles that the council uses.

He added that the council would use the hire purchase system when obtaining new cars.

Until the next time, cheers.