(Seated, fourth from left onwards) Zulkurnain, Johary and Rosli with the 23 MBSJ councillors for the 2023 term.
Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ) will grant a grace period of up to three months for food hawkers and restaurant operators to comply with Selangor government’s ruling for food handlers to wear face masks.
“For now, we are taking the soft approach in terms of enforcement.
“Our officers have been going around to create awareness of the ruling to wear face mask among food and beverage workers,” said Subang Jaya mayor Datuk Johary Anuar.
“This requirement has been included as part of the licence renewal condition for food and beverage operators starting this year.”
He said the practice of wearing face mask started during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ruling was an extension of it.
“It is a good move as it ensures that food handlers practise good hygiene.
“The grace period, besides giving hawkers and restaurant operators time to adjust to the ruling, will allow us to observe the types of face masks that they should be wearing and fine-tune some existing by-laws,” the mayor elaborated.
After the grace period, Johary said MBSJ would consider taking more drastic action including issuing compounds.
According to MBSJ, there are 2,700 restaurant licence holders and 5,470 food hawkers under its purview.
Selangor government has announced that wearing face masks is a requirement for all food and beverage workers in the state starting Jan 1.
However, local councils were empowered to decide on the start date of its implementation.
On a separate matter, Johary said MBSJ was increasing the number of Ramadan bazaar sites and trading lots under its purview this year.
This is in line with the Prime Minister’s call for local authorities to provide suitable infrastructure for traders and micro entrepreneurs to run their businesses.
MBSJ will be providing 1,560 lots at 26 locations this year, compared to 815 lots at 16 locations last year.
“One of the new locations is Jalan SS13/1A in Subang Jaya,” said Johary.
“We are offering 30 lots at this open-air parking space located next to the food truck site at Dataran Millennium.”
He said online application for the Jalan SS13/1A Ramadan bazaar trading lot closes on Jan 13.
“We are also in talks with the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) to have programmes similar to their farmers’ markets or state government’s ‘Jualan Ehsan’.
“The frequency can be weekly or monthly, and we are now identifying suitable locations,” he added.
Johary was speaking after the swearing-in ceremony of 23 councillors for the 2023 term at MBSJ’s headquarters in USJ 5, Subang Jaya.
The line-up comprises eight new faces and 15 reappointments.
Only four councillors are women, while the remaining 19 are men.
In terms of party breakdown, 13 councillors are from DAP, six from PKR and four from Amanah.
Kamarul Hafiz Kamarudin is the new DAP councillor, while Khairol Basri M. Arif and Wan Shukri Wan Mustafa are the new Amanah councillors.
The new councillors from PKR are Sarawati Mukhtar, Pravin Murali, Tah Yap Keong, Ahmad Danish Hairudin and Tanujah Debulsingh.
Johary said the candidate to fill the final 24th spot, allotted to the sixth PKR representative, would be named by the state at a later time.
He added that the councillors’ respective zones and committees were decided by the party whips and through party discussions, with committee appointments also decided based on the councillors’ expertise and suitability.
All councillors took their oaths and signed their letters of undertaking in front of Johary.
Also present were Subang MP Wong Chen, Seri Serdang assemblyman Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, Subang Jaya assemblyman Michelle Ng, Subang Jaya deputy mayor Mohd Zulkurnain Che Ali and MBSJ deputy secretary Rosli Mohammad Yunus.
