Padawan Municipal Council cries out for help from police to curb loan sharks, cyber gambling and drug abuse in its area
KUCHING:
Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) is sending an SOS to the police to help
curb three major social ills in its area: loan sharks, cyber gambling
and drug abuse.
MPP chairman Lo Khere Chiang said his
council could do little to stop the spread of these illegal activities
because of shortage of enforcement officers.
“We really need the
police to assist us in tackling these three major social issues as we
are unable to tackle them ourselves, given our limited number of
enforcement officers,” Lo told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
He
added that MPP had been doing its best to stop the spread of these three
social ills, but the situation seemed to worsen by the day.
“The
loan shark operators normally operate through runners. We try to
investigate especially by calling the numbers in the cards, flyers and
posters pasted all over the place such as on car screens, on trees and
notice boards, but it only reached the runners and the big fish were
nowhere to be found. That’s why we really need the assistance of
police,” said Lo.
Besides loan shark, cyber gambling too has thrived in shophouses under MPP jurisdiction.
“When
we closed one, another one will appear somewhere. We have closed down
hundreds but there are more appearing. This is another issue where the
police must help us,” he said.
On drug abuse, Lo said, MPP also need the urgent help from the police to tackle it as it had already gone beyond its control.
According
to Lo, MPP covers a huge area of about 320 sq.km with a population of
over 300,000. The areas under the jurisdiction of MPP are from Mile 3 to
Tapah Bazaar, the whole Padawan area, Penrissen area till Borneo
Heights and Matang Jaya right up to Telaga Air.
However, the
scourge did not seem to affect the two neighbouring city councils,
Kuching City South Council (MBKS) and Kuching City North Hall (DBKU) as
the police have been consistently assisting them.
“We are very lucky in MBKS because we are located right in the middle of the city and the police have been very helpful.
“So
I hoped everyone in our community will continue to assist us and the
police to make Kuching City a much safer and better place to live in,”
said Mayor James Chan when contacted yesterday.
His counterpart in
DBKU, Datuk Abang Wahab Abang Julai concurred with Chan saying that his
council would continue administer the area under its jurisdiction
through its Clean, Beautiful and Safe (CBS) Enhancement Plan (2013-2017)
which was launched last year.
“The CBS Enhancement Plan is
envisioned to tackle all these social issues through smart partnership
of the 3Ps (people, private and public),” said Abang Wahab, who is a
former high ranking police officer.
He said the objective of CBS Enhancement Plan was to make Kuching City a vibrant, clean, beautiful, safe place.
