Kedah wants law to be amended fast to curb cable theft

ALOR SETAR: Kedah has once again urged that the Second-Hand Dealers Act 1946 be amended fast to curb telecommunication cable theft which has become rampant in the state.

State Science, Innovation and Information Technology, Communications and High Technology, and Human Resources Committee chairman, Datuk Norsabrina Abdullah said such a proposal had been made before to the Cabinet and had now become urgent in the current situation.

“Amending the act will be the best step to overcome the problem of cable theft occurring in Kedah and across the country as currently, anyone can buy and sell stolen cables.

“Although most of the copper cables have been replaced with optical fibres, cable theft is still rampant as there is a demand for it,” she said after the launching of Webe Telekom Malaysia Berhad ( TM), here, yesterday.

Norsabrina said cable thefts had caused communication problems for the rural folk due to limited telecommunication access.

“Generally, senior citizens in the rural areas use fixed telephone lines to communicate as they are less adept at using the mobile phone, but cable thefts have hampered them.

“In my state constituency, Kulim Bandar Baharu, the problem persists as Telekom Malaysia ( TM) had re-fixed the cables four times, yet it got stolen again,” she lamented. — Bernama