LDDC NOT A TOOTHLESS TIGER?

IILEGAL Aerial view of the minibus terminal with the illegal stalls (white canopies) in sight while LDDC Chairman, Zulkifli confirm that, “We are no toothless tigers.”

THE District Council will be issuing an eviction notice within this week to the minibus operators who erected illegal structures at the bus terminal here without any approval from the relevant authorities.

Confirming this was District Officer, Haji Zulkifli Bin Haji Nasir when meet before a dialog with hawkers recently, adding that such decision was made during recent full council meeting.

According to him, the operators concerned not only fail to inform both District Council and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) on the erecting of the structures to be rented out; they don’t even bother to get the approval. The said premise belongs to the District Council and SESB, partly.

Describing the operators’ action as being disrespectful to the council’s rules and regulation, he said the Council refused to renew the trading license of the operators when it expired in late last year.

“They are now operating illegally, this is not a bus terminal anymore, this is a hawkers and food stalls terminal, and because it has been going on for so long the council was even labeled as ‘toothless tiger’ by the public. We are fed-up and from now on we will act firmly to show the public that we are not a toothless tiger,” he said.

“I had visited Tawau minibus terminal recently and was surprised that although the size is smaller that ours they managed the terminal efficiently and systematically, they even can accommodate couches, so why can’t we?” he asked.

As such, he said the council will take back the minibus terminal here and demolish all the illegal structures before deciding to call for open tender for the development of the place.

He was also disappointed that the minibus terminal operators had failed to attract all minibuses in the district to the said terminal.

It seemed that many of these minibuses prefer to occupy the parking lots within the township, which has been identified as one of the reasons for traffic congestion in several main roads, especially when the other vehicles were forced to double park due to lack of parking lots.

Apart from this, minibuses passengers often also simply discard their rubbish out onto the road while waiting for other passengers to embark, and this has also greatly hampered the District Council’s effort to maintain cleanliness of the township.

Meanwhile, the District Council’s Licensing Committee deputy chairman, Councilor Kassim Bin Sulaiman and its Tender Committee Deputy Chairman, Sharil Bin Haji Shafiee claimed that the minibus terminal operators have demanded for a RM100,000 compensation in order for them to remove those illegal structures.

Kassim also explained that the reason why other minibuses refused to use the said bus terminal is because they are unable to compete with the pirate taxis, as most of the passengers are reluctant to walk to the terminal.

“In fact in the mid 90s, these minibuses operators gave their co-operation and moved in to the terminal, but after four days failing to get any passenger they began to move out,” Sharil added.

While acknowledging the stiff competition created by the pirate taxis to the minibuses operators, he lamented that the problem had persisted till today due to lack of support and co-operations from relevant authorities.

The council had estimated that there are 170 minibuses operating within the township, of which 30 are plying Segama area, 80 to Jerocco old palm estate area, while the remaining to Silam road and Tungku.

Apart from this, there are 48 four-wheel-drive station wagon providing transportation services.