SUNGAI PETANI – Stall operators along Kelab Cinta Sayang road here were disappointed when the Sungai Petani Municipal Council demolished their stalls without prior notice yesterday.
The owner of one of the 13 stalls demolished, Anita Suriati Aziz, 34, said that she and the others were not told before hand of the council action. “Even now, they have not told us why the stalls were demolished,” the roti canai seller told reporters at the council office.
“I have been selling roti canai here for 12 years. They took down the stalls without allowing us to negotiate. There were customers still eating when they started to pull down our stalls,” Anita Suriati said. “The only thing they told us was that the order came from the Mentri Besar office,” she added.
A newspaper vendor, Ramlan Abdul Rahman, 41, said he has lost his main source of income. “I have been earning RM20 to RM30 a day selling newspapers. I have five children. Now I have no idea how to support my family,” he said. Ramlan said the council should be more humane. “They could at least have told us earlier to move,” he added.
Kedah Umno deputy liaison committee chairman Datuk Mukhriz Tun Mahathir said the demolition was unfair to the operators. He indicated that it was disappointing to people who had been promised a lot by the state government.
“You cannot promise everything, but whatever you promise you should keep,” he told reporters after presenting computers to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Mahajothi here.
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Jimmy Tan
