The carnival saw some of the 22 synergy partners for MBSJ’s Ramadan bazaars setting up booths to promote their products and services.
Mayor: MBSJ to carry out periodic checks to ensure traders meet licence conditions
SUBANG Jaya City Council (MBSJ) warns Ramadan bazaar traders to not sublet their business licences to other parties.
Those found to be doing so will have their licence cancelled immediately, says mayor Datuk Mohd Fauzi Mohd Yatim.
He added that periodic checks would be done to ensure the licence conditions were adhered to.
“Traders should run their own stalls and not sublet their licences to other parties, such as foreigners,” he said.
“Only Malaysians can apply for Ramadan bazaar licences and MBSJ will carry out checks to ensure the applicant is on site.”
As of last year, he said no incidents of subletting licences were recorded at Ramadan bazaars under MBSJ’s purview.
“We are also banning the use of staplers for food packaging at Ramadan bazaars along with polystyrene packaging and plastic straws.
“Face masks will be compulsory for traders, while customers are encouraged to bring their own food containers,” he said.
Mohd Fauzi added that traders were not allowed to leave their items such as tents overnight to prevent obstruction, as most of the bazaars were located along public roads.
“If our officers come across items left at bazaar sites, we will confiscate them,” said Mohd Fauzi after launching the MBSJ Ramadan Bazaar Carnival and Briefing 2024 at Dewan Serbaguna MBSJ Puchong Indah in Puchong, Selangor.
“If a trader wants his items back, he will have to pay a RM300 fine and RM10 per night for impound storage.”
A total of 1,168 traders from six zones attended the briefing.
MBSJ has 25 Ramadan bazaar locations this year.
In his speech, Mohd Fauzi said MBSJ was chosen as the first local government in Selangor to work with PETRONAS Dagangan Bhd for a used cooking oil recycling campaign, whereby RM3 would be paid for every 1kg of oil collected.
“This programme will be carried out on Saturdays, from 5pm to 7pm, at four Ramadan bazaar locations – USJ4, Bandar Kinrara 5, Taman Puchong Prima and Taman Puncak Jalil.
“Participating traders will be given a free jerry can to collect their used cooking oil.”
He added that PETRONAS would be offering two free gas cyclinder exchanges per trader at the four bazaars during Ramadan.
“In addition, MBSJ will provide drums to collect used cooking oil at seven other locations,” said Mohd Fauzi.
“These will be managed by the Environmental Management Department.
“We are also continuing our collaboration with What A Waste (WAW) to channel unsold food rescued from Ramadan bazaars to additional locations this year.”
WAW is a social enterprise that rescues surplus food and distributes it to marginalised communities.
It first worked with MBSJ last year at the USJ4 Ramadan bazaar, where they collected and distributed 1.06 tonnes of unsold food to B40 communities and welfare homes.
WAW co-founder Alvin Chen said this year the programme would be expanded to five Ramadan bazaars in the Subang Jaya zone, namely USJ4, USJ7, Pinggiran USJ, Batu Tiga and SS19.
“This year we have digitised our processes through a dedicated website, including registering traders and recipients.
“At the end of a business day, traders will take photos of their unsold food and indicate the portions on our website.
“The website will notify the nearest recipients and generate a QR code for each recipient to collect food directly from traders.”
Chen said WAW staffers and volunteers would be on standby to troubleshoot and handle on-ground problems.
“We expect more food wastage will be generated this year as there are more traders too.
“We have more than 10,000 households in low-cost flats and about 10 welfare homes in Subang Jaya registered as beneficiaries, but our priority will be for those who are fasting,” he added.
