MUCH NEEDED PAINFUL CLAMPING AND TOWING

Kudos to the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) and the Penang Island Mayor Dato’ Maimunah Mohd Sharif in enforcing the clamping and towing of illegally parked vehicles.

This is in view of the recent case where a lady with her disabled mother’s car was clamped in Jalan Macalister.

MBPP enforcement officers acted even-handedly because it is common to find that cars without OKU stickers taking up the space allocated for OKUs. It is often that the drivers are not OKU at all. How do we expect enforcement officers to verify?

The onus is on the car owner to prove with a OKU sticker on the windscreen. It is grossly unfair to people who genuinely need the spot to park.

The clamping of the car and fining the driver should strictly be based on stickers as this Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) eliminates the ambiguous area in implementation of the regulations whereby the enforcers might be accused of being bias.

For the year 2017 (until October) as many as 16,878 vehicles have been clamped while another 4,310 vehicles, towed. If tough action is not taken against errant drivers, then the people will continue to flout the law with impunity. We cannot have the best of both worlds: haphazard parking and smooth traffic flow.

MBPP should keep up the good work in deterring people who cannot abide by the law. There is no excuse of flouting the law and makes a mockery of it.

Letter to The Editor/Press Release, 23 November 2017