Rep ‘returns’ rubbish dumped by factory at roadside

Compiled by  CRYSTAL CHIAM SHIYING, BEH YUEN HUI and  R.ARAVINTHAN

FRUSTRATED with the behaviour of litterbugs, a Selangor state assemblyman “returned” a huge pile of rubbish dumped by the roadside to the owner, Sinar Harian reported.

Balakong assemblyman Eddie Ng Tien Chee collected the rubbish along Jalan KPB 12 in Kampung Baharu Balakong with a municipal council truck and unloaded them in front of a factory, believed to be responsible for the illegal dumping of wastes.

The DAP rep said he was acting on complaints from the public who sent him pictures showing three men throwing old roof fragments and other wastes from a lorry bearing the factory’s name, onto the roadside.

He also alleged that the factory owner let his workers dump waste into a nearby river.

The Kajang Municipal Council issued two compounds to the factory owner on Monday.

This was the third time Ng had acted per­sonally against litterbugs. In previous incidents, he collected and returned rubbish in Bandar Tun Hussein Onn and Taman Megah to those who had dumped them.

> Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said kratom addiction among students, especially in the northern states, has become a serious issue.

He, however, said the ministry could not ascertain the number of students involved in taking kratom drink, known as air ketum.

“A random urine test conducted on students found that kratom abuse among them was serious,” Mahdzir told Utusan Malaysia when met at the Perlis Education Department on Monday.

He urged parents to take measures to keep their children from kratom abuse.

> Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.