Community services for litterbugs soon

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KOTA KINABALU: Litterbugs in the city soon may be punished by carrying out community services.

City Hall director general Datuk Yeo Boon Hai, who was at the Tanjung Aru Beach to meet 13 members of the US navy warship, USS Michael Murphy, involved in the beach cleaning exercise yesterday, said the proposal made by the people would be studied in detail by City Hall.

He said that City Hall was also keen on looking into the transformation of the punitive measures taken to make it more slanted towards community or social work.

“We will definitely consider it,” he assured.

Yeo also mentioned that such measures would require looking at the existing by-laws and any changes made would have to be submitted to the government for its approval.

Meanwhile, press members attending the event yesterday were informed that City Hall has begun an operation to catch litterbugs in the act.

The operation began late last month and so far, 15 people have been penalised for discarding wastes, ranging from cigarette buds to food wastes at the Tanjung Aru beach.

The perpetrators were fined between RM20 and RM30 each, depending on the type of wastes they were caught littering and were forced to pay on the spot or risk having the case brought to court.

Yeo described the amount as affordable and hoped that members of the public would take the cue and stop littering indiscriminately.

The head of the team of US navy members taking part in the community service yesterday, FCC Ryan York, 41, said that it was a norm for them to take part in some sort of community work at every port they called at.

“We saw all the trash here and wanted to create a better environment for the children,” he said.