Lido Market gets thorough disinfection
KOTA KINABALU: The Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) on Sunday carried out a thorough disinfection exercise at the Lido Market here.
It was conducted by a fullyequipped team of 12-personnel under instruction and approval of its director-general Noorliza Awang Alip.
Tan Sri T.C Goh, chairman of Cara Kaya Sdn Bhd (CKSB), the operator of Lido Square, said the exercise was following a request from the company last Saturday, in order to ensure the hawkers and the public could continue to conduct their daily affairs in a hygienic-and-safe environment, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
He especially thanked both Mayor Datuk Nordin Siman and Noorliza for their swift action in carrying out the exercise.
“Our utmost gratitude to the Mayor Datuk Nordin and Puan Noorliza, for attending to our request with such a great efficiency. This clearly demonstrates their concern for public wellbeing during this extraordinary situation,” said Goh after inspecting the disinfection exercise.
He also thanked the hawkers and the regular customers of Lido Market for their understanding and cooperation to the crowdcontrol and social-distancing measures implemented by its management, in the past two weeks, since the Movement Control Order (MCO) took effect from March 18.
Goh noted that during this period of time, Lido Square management also hired Rela personnel to maintain order and security of the place, besides providing hand sanitiser for the public, before they are allowed to enter the market.
“All the expenses are borne by us (CKSB), but we are glad that everyone has been very cooperative, and things go smooth. We hope that everyone could continue to cooperate with us until the MCO is over,” he said.
Goh explained that although Lido Square is currently a private-owned property and has yet to be officially recognised as a public market, it has nonetheless been a leading market place for the local Chinese community to conduct their daily marketing, all these while.
And due to its private entity status, all the expenses for its maintenance which include the daily garbage disposal, security, as well as the undertaking for the hawkers’ monthly licence fee and health permit fee, are borne by CKSB.
Meanwhile, Goh also expressed his frustration over the ‘neglect’ of Lido township by the local authorities, due to its current unique position.
“Lido is like an abandoned child, as it is situated at the boundary between Kota Kinabalu and Penampang. Previously, it comes under the jurisdiction of Penampang, but now it’s under the DBKK. It also came under the Kepayan state constituency and Penampang parliamentary constituency, previously.
“But, all these while, we had not received much attention from both the Member of Parliament and the State assemblyman, we literally felt neglected,” he lamented.
He further lamented that the situation has become even more depressing now following the electoral boundaries redelineation exercise where, Lido is now placed under Kota Kinabalu parliamentary constituency and the Luyang state constituency.
He explained that this was because Lido didn’t get to benefit from the development funds which are meant for Kota Kinabalu and Luyang, as they had been channelled to Penampang and Kepayan, instead.
He surmised that the Lido constituents are probably being neglected due to the fact that they did not vote in both Kota Kinabalu parliamentary constituency and Luyang state constituency in the last general election.
To better illustrate the plight of the Lido residents, Goh highlighted the dilapidated condition of the public roads surrounding the residential estates, which had not been repaved for more than 15 years, besides the faulty streetlights, and poor maintenance of the surrounding garbage centres.
“And following the closure of the garbage centre behind the KFC outlet due to public complaints over the unbearable smell, we now end up having to take care of all the garbage that were disposed by others at our place. This is very unfair to us,” he lamented.