Liu and team outline solutions to solve MPSJ issues
08/04/2008 The Star By Lim Chia Ying

PERTINENT issues like billboards, illegal factories and abandoned projects were discussed during the Selangor state exco members' first official visit to the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) yesterday.

The delegation was led by state local government, research and development committee chairman Ronnie Liu along with new village development and illegal factory task force committee chairman Ean Yong Hian Wah as well as Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo Burne and Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh.

The visit started off with a morning assembly at the MPSJ stadium where Liu gave a speech.

He said he wished to improve the image of the state government by taking immediate action for a cleaner, greener and safer Selangor.

Outlining plans for the state: Liu addressing the crowd during the assembly at the MPSJ stadium.

“To increase safety, we are planning to have more CCTVs for all local councils in Selangor. As for the greenery, we are targeting to plant one million trees by this year and each council will have to do its part in the tree-planting programme.

“We are also keen to get the community involved in more activities,” said Liu.

He added that the state was also planning to revamp the rubbish collection and treatment system and to increase recycling programmes.

After the assembly, MPSJ president Datuk Adnan Md Ikhsan briefed the group on the council's current issues as well as other matters.

The council's department directors and officers were also present at the meeting and responded to questions from Liu.

On the issue of illegal factories, Liu said there were over 400 within MPSJ and more than 3,000 throughout Selangor.

“We want to legalise these illegal factories and will find the shortest and best way to do so,” he told Adnan.

Liu also proposed for this method to be applied to the illegal billboards that had sprouted all over the state.

“We will give them a chance to be legalised or else we will not hesitate to bring the billboards down. If a billboard is illegal, say, for the past two years, this means that they have not been paying anything during these years but continue to collect money from advertisers.

“The Sultan of Selangor and the public are very concerned over this issue. We will first get the billboard companies to pay the arrears they owe and then we will help them to get the Temporary Occupational Licence (TOL) from the land office.

“We are not stopping them from making money; they can continue doing so but it must be done the proper way. It is unfair to simply put up a billboard and force the council to accept it,” said Liu.

He added that billboards that pose a danger to motorists or block the view will be taken down.

“At the moment, no new billboards should be put up unless this is done at an appropriate place.

”We will also look into reviewing the billboards' licensing fee because we feel the council should be collecting more,” he explained.

At the meeting, Adnan also agreed to Liu's proposal to open payment counters every Saturday from 8am to 1pm for the people's convenience.

This would be effective from this Saturday.

Liu also proposed that more teams were sent to the ground to check on areas that were in a state of disrepair and in need of maintenance instead of waiting for the ratepayers to complain.

Adnan said the council already had put in place such a system with a team of contractors to do the work.

“MPSJ monitors the contractors' performance and will penalise them if they don't do a good job. However, we will definitely look into this proposal of having more mobile teams.”

On the issue of the Millennium Park in Subang Jaya, Adnan told Liu that the contractor's contract to develop the site ended on April 1.

“We kept extending their deadline but nothing has been done to date. So now the council has taken back the site and we will restore the place to its original look with trees.

“Appropriate action will also be taken, especially since the contractor has demolished the structures at the site but failed to develop anything,” said Adnan.

Yeoh, meanwhile, said she would organise a dialogue between the residents and police to get feedback as to whether past crime prevention programmes had been effective.

“We want to know why the break-in incidents are still so high. If past programmes have not been effective, we want to find new ways to curb crime.

“I also hope to get the traffic police to be part of this dialogue and look into traffic problems,” she said.