KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) conducts joint enforcement operations with the police every two days to curb the activities of street photographers, or photo touts, in the Kuala Lumpur City Centre area.
Mayor Datuk Fadlun Mak Ujud said at least five photo touts were detained during each operation, with their equipment also seized.
“The number of photo touts in the area can be seen to have decreased,” he told the media after the signing ceremony of a memorandum of cooperation between DBKL and CIMB Bank Berhad under the 'Moving KL Forward - Kita Bagi Jadi' initiative today.
In addition to enforcement, DBKL had also installed closed-circuit television cameras to monitor activity, along with a multilingual announcement system that issues alerts every 10 minutes, cautioning tourists against using photo touts' services.
Fadlun added that DBKL would not issue licences for photography activities in major tourist hotspots in the capital due to safety risks.
“When photo touts take pictures, they stand on the road, which creates a dangerous situation for tourists,” he said.
Meanwhile, on rental arrears involving 51 people’s housing projects and public housing schemes in the capital amounting to RM14 million, Fadlun said DBKL was taking a more considerate approach to address the issue by offering instalment payment schemes to tenants.
“If we are strict, then they (tenants) will have no homes. So we must be more considerate, as long as they take responsibility to pay their rent,” he said.
The approach has received positive feedback from tenants, who are committed to making payments in instalments.
