Uniformed City Hall officers march past Madingkir and guests of honour at the ceremony yesterday.
Madingkir sharing a light moment with one of City Hall’s staff after officiating the flag-hoisting ceremony yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: The Kota Kinabalu City Hall has begun intensifying efforts to curb the bad littering habits of the city citizens by issuing 201 compounds this year, compared to 550 throughout the whole of last year.
This is in keeping with making the year 2014, which is also the 14th anniversary of Kota Kinabalu as a city, the Year of Enforcement on Anti-Litterbugs Campaign, as City Hall’s enforcement officers focus on doubling their efforts to apprehend litterbugs in and around the city.
Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir disclosed at the Kota Kinabalu 14th anniversary flag-hoisting ceremony at the Kota Kinabalu Community Hall here yesterday, that littering is still a problem in the city despite City Hall’s various efforts to curb the habit.
“Many, including motorists and drivers, dispose of rubbish deliberately out of their vehicles. By intensifying operations against litterbugs, we hope to remind them not to litter,” he said at the ceremony.
Intensification effort which began this year include having to no longer issue any warning letters to litterbugs, but to directly issue them with compounds.
City Hall has also introduced a litterbug complaint system that encourages the public to report the vehicle registration number, location, and date of offence of drivers or passengers who litter, by contacting the City Hall hotline at 088-210011, which Celcom network users can use to send an SMS to.
Madingkir also reminded eatery, restaurant and food stall owners and operators to ensure the cleanliness of their outlets on a daily basis, as compounds will also be issued to those who fail to do so.
In his speech, the mayor also disclosed that the year 2014 will see the continuation of City Hall’s 5K Strategic Plan 2011-2015, which includes the completion of the Sembulan River’s beautification project phase two and moving on to phase three, implementing phase two of the pedestrian and bicycle lane from Tanjung Aru to the city centre before the middle of this year, improving parking facilities at the city centre, and upgrading the traffic flow at the city centre.
“We already have a masterplan to implement the upgrading of the traffic flow at the city centre which we will start implementing this year in two phases.
“Phase 1 will see the upgrading of traffic flow from the Jalan Coastal Sutera Harbour junction all the way to Jesselton Point, and phase two will involve the upgrading of the traffic flow in Jalan Wawasan, Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens and Sinsuran area,” he said.
Also present at the ceremony yesterday were Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister cum the minister responsible for the Kota Kinabalu City Hall, Datuk Edward Yong Oui Fah, and City Hall director-general Datuk Yeo Boon Hai.