SHAH ALAM, Aug 18 — Frustrated residents are urging the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to demolish a concrete slab built over a drain along Jalan 14/48 in Section 14, on which makeshift roadside stalls are presenting traffic and safety hazards.
Resident Johari Salleh, 80, told The Star that it has become an unbearable problem for road users.
“Motorists stop at the stalls, block traffic and create safety risks for drivers and pedestrians.
“Most of the time, we see drivers slow sharply to pull over or order from their vehicle windows,” he said.
Johari shared that at the same location, MBPJ had previously removed a banana fritter hawker in July last year but didn’t demolish the concrete platform, so the traders returned within the week to reopen their stalls.
Resident M. Sharifah, 36, urged MBPJ to remove the platform to halt hawking, suggesting the council provide vendors with application forms for vacant council lots at nearby food courts.
Another resident, Michael Cheah, 68, said the presence of the roadside stall forces pedestrians to walk on the busy road.
“It would be better for MBPJ to move the mobile vendors to night markets. It would be good to have a walking path with bollards along Jalan 14/48 to prevent vehicles from (accessing) the walkway,” he said.
To the community’s concerns, MBPJ’s Corporate Communications Division assistant director Ahmad Iskandar Mohamad Mukhtar said that based on initial information, the stall operator risks having their business equipment, stall and goods confiscated.
“Under the Hawkers By-laws 2007, no hawker is allowed to trade along roadsides and road shoulders or on pedestrian walkways or pavements, let alone (on) a busy road,” he said.
Iskandar added that MBPJ enforcers would visit the site soon.
