No Compromise on Cleanliness for Visit Ipoh Year 2023
by Rosli Mansor
Stricter enforcement will be taken against any party that ignores the issue of cleanliness, especially the merchants in this city.
The mayor of Ipoh, Dato’ Rumaizi Baharin @ Md Daud said, his party will not compromise with those who ignore the cleanliness issue, thereby giving a bad image to the state of Perak.
He also said that continuous efforts have been made in line with the target of Towards a Clean Ipoh 2023 and Visit Ipoh Year 2023.
“We will improve enforcement activities every day. If there is no cleanliness, people will not like to come to our place.
“Inspections will be carried out randomly, especially in tourist hotspots.
“We have to be firm. If we have given advice and it doesn’t work, we have to enforce and drag to court.
“We don’t want ‘one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch’. Because if one shop is dirty then it affects the reputation of others, and people say all the traders in Ipoh are dirty… the truth is maybe only 1 or 2 percent,” he said.
He said this to reporters at a press conference after chairing the January 2023 Council Plenary Meeting at the Ipoh City Council Meeting Hall (MBI), yesterday.
In the meantime, Rumaizi thinks the cleanliness quality of traders in this city can be considered better than other tourist locations.
“We don’t want just because one or two traders make a mistake or don’t take care of cleanliness, then everything will be messed up and affected,” he said.
He added that last year 336 premises were graded A, 858 premises were graded B while 14 premises were graded C.
He said that the target of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) is to set 80 percent of the total number of food premises inspected (restaurants, cafes & kiosks) to obtain grade B and grade A.
“Ipoh City Council’s achievement is 98.8 percent. In addition, in 2022, a total of 1,155 food premises toilets have been inspected by the Food Safety and Quality Unit.
“As a result of the inspection, as many as 1,155 toilets have received 3 stars or above and as many as six warning letters have been issued for premises that failed to comply with toilet hygiene requirements,” he added.
