By CHOONG MEK ZHIN
mekzhin@thestar.com.my
Photo by SAMUEL ONG | Jul 15, 2010
Dirty operators in Taman Shamelin Perkasa
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Ugly: A rubbish pile at the end of one road.
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THE business community in Taman Shamelin Perkasa has developed a habit of dumping their trash everywhere in the neighbourhood’s commercial centre.
Compounding the problem is the irregular garbage collection by Alam Flora. This has been going on for 15 years and it looks like there is no end in sight.
Businessman Eugene Ng said there used to be rubbish bins provided by the local authority.
“However, many of these bins disappeared about five years ago. This may be why there is indiscriminate dumping of waste,” he said.
He also said that Alam Flora garbage trucks did not come regularly to the area and only occasionally workers were seen sweeping the commercial site.
Siti Radzeah Rahmat, 34, an advertising coordinator who has been working in the area for over a decade, said the stench from the rubbish mounds would get unbearable at times.
“There are also two ‘bonfire’ sites near a local tertiary institution here. The culprits carry out open burning there every now and then and it is usually done in the evenings around the time that I leave the office,” she said.
Ng, who has been running his business in this area for the past 15 years, said there was no reply from the authorities thus far to several complaints lodged by his staff.
“There was a response once, but it was basically a blame game — one authority pushing the responsibility to another.
“It does not help us as nothing is done to solve the problem that is still rampant,” he said.
He said that he used to hire private contractors to clean up the area, costing a few hundred ringgit each time.
“Sometimes when I see grass cutters working in the area, I will pay them RM20 to RM30 to sweep the area,” he added.
A more disturbing sight for Ng and other business owners here is the presence of drug addicts.
“They occupy the upper floors of the shoplots and indulge in their habit along the corridors,” said Ng.
He suspects the addicts may have stolen the metal safety railings from the top floor corridors.
“The missing railings pose a danger to us all,” he said.
Another safety threat he pointed out was a missing cover for a drain nearby.
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