SEPANG: The saying “when it rains, it pours” holds true for residents of Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi here who were affected by the recent floods.
It was bad enough that their vehicles were damaged but they are now incensed that the Sepang Municipal Council deems it fit to issue summonses for illegal parking.
After flood waters receded last week, the residents had moved their vehicles to a nearby car workshop to have them repaired and cleaned.
Despite notes being left by a few owners on their cars stating the vehicles were affected by flash floods, the summonses were still issued and left on the vehicles, adding salt to the injury.
Equally upset by the action taken by the council was MPS councillor Dr Teo Lian Seng.
He said the cars were neatly parked by a road shoulder opposite the workshop and were not obstructing traffic.
Teo said he went over to the location on Friday after being alerted and was taken aback to see about 25 cars that had were issued with summonses.
“This is totally unacceptable and should not have happened. This is the work of the Little Napoleons in the council. It was not a gazetted parking lot and undoubtedly, they can fine the car owners but this is not the time to do it. There is no need to be overzealous.” he told theSun.
Teo, whose house in Dengkil was also hit by floods, said he had raised the matter with top officials of MPS who also agreed that the summonses should not have been issued considering the circumstances.
The councillor also offered to pay the fines for the affected car owners if the council chose not to cancel the summonses.
“The fine of RM10 is small but the amount does not matter. Knowing the vehicle owners were badly hit by the floods, the law should be executed with compassion. I will pay the fines if MPS does not write it off,“ he said.
Photos of the vehicles that were fined by the council were shared in the social media, earning criticism from netizens.
Social media users empathised with the car owners, saying they should not be further burdened as they had suffered enough losses and expenditure caused by the floods.
However, MPS had another version to tell and claimed that the issuance of the summonses was justified as most of the cars at the said area were not flood-damaged.
Council president Datuk Abd.Hamid Hussain said 51 parked cars in the area were issued summonses as no parking coupons were displayed by the owners or the workshop proprietor as required by MPS.
He said one car, a white Perodua Myvi, was the sole vehicle that was exempted from being issued a summons as it was covered in mud and suspected to be affected by the floods.
Abd Hamid said the MPS was also not informed of flood-hit cars being parked in the area.
“Had we been told earlier, we would have definitely assisted in preparing a parking area for the cars affected by floods and not taken any action.” he said.
Abd Hamid said action was initiated on Thursday as the area had become a dumping spot for abandoned and old cars.
“This is not the first time we had taken action in the area. In the past we had towed the abandoned cars but the situation keeps recurring. Hence, our action is justified. As for vehicles that were flood-damaged and were fined, MPS is prepared to cancel the compound summons and exempt them of any fine.” he said.