The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Housing developments in Johor are now required to have community police post
- Moneylenders arrested for charging high interests
- 200 people collected 577kg rubbish off two islands
| Housing developments in Johor are now required to have community police post Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:40 PM PST PASIR GUDANG: New housing projects in Johor are required to have a community police post (CPP) within their development to create better awareness on crime prevention among residents. Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda) senior vice president (integrated planning) Datuk Benjamin Hasbie said only projects with residential properties between 500 and 1,500 units were involved in the ruling. He said the State Planning Committee (SPC) already looking into the matter and it was just a matter of time before the state government gazettes it as a law. "We want active participation from residents in crime prevention as they can become the police's ears and eyes in reducing crime rate,'' said Benjamin. He said one way of doing that was to have a better interaction between residents and through their Residents Committee Associations and police personnel at the CCP. Benjamin was speaking in a press conference at the "Safe City" seminar organised by the Pasir Gudang Municipal Council opened by the Johor deputy police chief Datuk Ismail Yatim. He said presently, there were 15 CCP in existing housing schemes within Iskandar Malaysia and the setting up of the CCP was done on a voluntarily basis by the respective developers. Benjamin said hoped developers planning to launch new projects which have the gated and guarded concept within their development to consider having the CCP in their projects as well. Meanwhile, Johor Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) chairman Simon Heng said the association welcomed the proposal as it was good for developers too. "Rehda and SPC met several months ago to discuss on the matter and hopefully, we can meet again as there are other issues that we need to look into,'' he told The Star. Heng said among others Rehda members wanted to know whether the inclusion of the CCP in their projects would involve the 10% area that developers have to allocate as green lung area for residents. He said another issue that the state government and the Royal Malaysian Police need to look into whether there were enough manpower – residents, volunteers and police personnel to man the CCP. Heng said developers did not mind building the CCP as part of their corporate social responsibility but the facility must be fully utilised or else it could become another white elephant. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Moneylenders arrested for charging high interests Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:38 PM PST KOTA KINABALU: Three licensed moneylenders have found themselves in trouble with the law for charging customers with high interest rates. Ministry of Housing and Local Governments moneylenders and pawnbrokers division enforcement chief Supt M. Chandra said his unit raided their premises here last Sept and Oct following complaints from the public. His team established the moneylenders charged an interest rate that is higher than it should be on their borrowers, he said, adding one of the moneylenders also breached regulations on stamp agreement. According to Section 17 A of the Moneylenders Act 1951, Chandra said moneylenders should not charge an interest rate exceeding 12% for collateral and 18% for non-collateral per year to borrowers. "Once our investigations are complete on the trio, we will bring the cases to the court," he said during a briefing to operators offering moneylending services. Meanwhile, more than 80% of advertisements displayed or distributed by moneylending companies do not comply with regulations under the Moneylenders Act 1951. "Some of the advertisements do not have the company's name, telephone number and address, license and permit numbers as well as benefits being offered," Chandra said. He said these advertisements were displayed either through newspapersor posters pasted in public places. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| 200 people collected 577kg rubbish off two islands Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:37 PM PST KOTA KINABALU: Almost 200 people from various countries participated in Project Aware, an ocean conservation programme with worldwide recognition, to collect rubbish at two islands off the city here recently. The participants which included 73 divers who collected underwater garbage mostly plastic debris, cleaned up the shores and seas off the Mamutik and Sulug islands, which are part of the tourist-packed Tunku Abdul Rahman park, about 15 minutes' boat ride from the city. Organised by local dive operator Borneo Divers and partnered by Project Aware Foundation, Environmental Action Centre, Sabah Tourisn Board and Sabah Environmental Protection Association, the programme has been running for 11 years now. Borneo Divers managing director Clement Lee said rubbish thrown by city dwellers especially coastal residents end up mainly in the waters off this park and becomes an eyesore for recreational guests particularly foreign ones. The programme is one of the efforts to alleviate the situation, he said. "In fact we do four to five clean-ups each year with other dive centres and partners to help rid the islands off the state capital of discarded debris," he said. He said the debris collected has been increasing each year from 309kg in 2008 to 701kg in 2009 and 808kg last year. "Hopefully this time we will collect less than last year, meaning our efforts are helping keep the environment a bit cleaner," Lee said, pointing out they also need to raise awareness to nip the problem in the bud. At the end of the day, the participants collected rubbish weighing about 577kg. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Bolkiah Ismail launched the programme. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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