KUCHING, June 30: Kuching City Mall is now allowed to operate everyday from 12pm to 6pm in order to enable the hawkers to trade on a rotation basis.
Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) in a statement today revealed that by allowing the market to do so, it can also cater for hawkers from nearby areas such as the MJC night street market which were affected by the movement control order (MCO).
Kuching City Mall is a night street market privately operated by Cat’s Walk Enterprise.
The mall operates on Saturdays and Sundays and can accommodate approximately 100 stalls.
“Upon the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC)’s approval on the reopening of the night market, the operator had approached MPP and proposed their standard operating procedure (SOP) with plans and layout of their stalls in accordance to the guidelines.
“Due to the restriction of the space to meet the social distancing purposes whereby the canopies have to be 2.5 metres apart, the existing site could not accommodate or allow the hawkers to trade at full capacity,” the statement revealed.
In view of this, MPP has decided to allow Kuching City Mall to operate everyday from 12pm to 6pm.
The council noted that during the Restricted MCO (RMCO), many traders and hawkers were trading by the roadside or other areas that is not allowed in order to make a living.
“Due to the food safety and public safety concerns, MPP managed to relocate these roadside hawkers to Kuching City Mall which is a more proper and strategic place for them to trade at.”
MPP also conducted a site inspection on June 26 and found that the operator has fully complied with the SOP whereby the canopies are 2.5 metres apart, People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) and Cat Walk Enterprise management were controlling the crowd and traffic, and temperature checks and recording attendance for both hawkers and customers were conducted at the entrance via Qmunity apps, CovidTrace, MySejahtera and manual recording.
“Kuching City Mall Night Street Market has set a good example of a night market that abides with the current SOP which is to be followed by other night markets or hawker centres.
“Therefore, the council strongly urges other night markets, hawker centres, weekend markets or ‘pasar tani’ in MPP area to form a committee among themselves and assist the council in enforcing the SOP. By doing so, they can earn their living and at the same time be responsible citizens by containing the spread of the Covid-19 virus while we are also focusing on the economic recovery.” — DayakDaily
