Member of Parliament for Bintulu Tiong King Sing BINTULU: Hawkers at the main market here have been urged not to abuse the licences which have been issued to them by renting the allocated trading lots to other people and denying other genuine traders to earn their livelihood. The Member of Parliament here, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said that these hawkers could risk having their licences revoked if the local authority, Bintulu Development Authority, found strong evidence against them for carrying such act. "This is an abuse of the licence that had been issued by the local authority and the licence holder should surrender their licences indefinitely to give opportunity to others who genuinely wanted to carry out stall-holding business," he added. He made these remarks at a dialogue session for members of the Bintulu Hawkers Association and Bintulu Association of Coffeeshop Operators at a restaurant here on Thursday evening. A total of 350 hawkers and coffee shop operators led by their respective chairmen, Voon Chin Liang and Wong Si Ai attended the dialogue session. The issue of "sub-contracting" emerged at the dialogue session after it was informed that some hawkers had appointed "assistants" to man their stalls and these assistants were actually those renting the place from the stallholders. Although a by-law exist to allow licence holders to appoint assistants to look after their business if they themselves are unable to do so for a period of up to two weeks, Tiong added that the leniency shown by BDA should not be taken as an opportunity to bend the rules. He was also saddened to learn that there were also businessmen who had been awarded the licence to trade at the market but showing no sign of operation when their stalls were left empty for a long period. Although they were paying the monthly rentals for the trading lots, Tiong felt that it would be better off if the businessmen give up their licences so that BDA could offer the vacant lots to other deserving traders who had no place to trade. Tiong also advised the hawkers and coffeeshop operators to appreciate the efforts shown by BDA to provide better environment and facilities for them to carry out their businesses by giving positive responses to any of the authorities requests. He also urged them to apply for approval from BDA prior to carrying out any extension works on the trading stalls that had been allocated to them. The approval was necessary to avoid adverse effects to the market environment. The Member of Parliament also disagreed with a suggestion that the hawkers should be allowed to extend their trade to five foot ways during holidays or weekends as past experience had shown that such move would cause unnecessary congestions in such places. On a query that the hawkers centre here could be shifted to the ParkCity Commerce Square here, Tiong added that there had been no final decision being made regarding the matter but he assured them that he would seek further information from BDA. He also pledged to bring up to the Parliament the issue of dilemma facing deep-sea fishermen here in continuing with their trade following the increase in the price of diesel and stringent measures in engaging forei n crew. While praising the hawkers and coffeeshop operators for being able to gather with him to discuss issues related to their businesses, he advised them to keep up with the spirit of consultation.