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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
dark side of unlawful activities, a path which is almost irreversible. When the press has reported that the left side of Nathan Road is managed by a particular triad society, I doubt whether it was a right decision for the Police to hand over the street management function at Nathan Road, Argyle Street and other busy streets to the Hawker Control Team in early 1995. I would once again urge the Police to strengthen their assistance to the Department. Through the launching of joint mopping-up operations, the deployment of task forces and policemen disguising as Hawker Control Team members and other measures, it is hoped that these unruly elements would be targeted.
I would like to make a few additional comments here as we see Miss Ada WONG's abstention and 'Big Bovine Tortoise' righting its wrongs and barely supporting the motion. I will however support the motion, so I would like to say something more. In fact, we are now having a fully elected Urban Council and our Council is running smoothly. It is easy to hear that many Councillors are speaking on behalf of their political parties. It is a political party style operation. It is actually a law of development of the council system that we first have election, and then political parties. In some cases, there even exists a ruling party or a coalition government. Today's UC is developing along a Western line. Miss Ada Wong has just mentioned that we do have power, e.g. we can veto the USD's estimates and budget of the coming year, just as the Congress of USA has forced some of the government departments to close temporarily and the staff to take no pay leave. Therefore, as members of a political party, we must vote with our heads. We, the Democratic Party, support the development of a five-year plan. That means we should discuss in detail how the five-year plan should be implemented. However, at the same time, if I say I am against the motion, does it mean that we do not have a clear plan before this five-year plan?
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. ERIC WONG CHUNG-KI (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, in the past, I was among the petitioners outside the Urban Council Chambers. Today, I am attending the Annual Conventional Debate of the Urban Council for the first time. As Chairman of the Working Group on the Control of Illegal Hawking which was set up last year under the Council's Markets and Street Traders Select Committee, I would like to focus my speech on the control of unlicensed hawkers and unlicensed food premises which operate during the evenings.
Many people are of the opinion that owing to the current high unemployment rate and economic recession in Hong Kong, more and more people will take up illegal hawking or operate illegal food business, thus making the problem of illegal hawking and illegal food business very difficult to solve. They say that in order to tackle this problem, we must get to its root and first solve the unemployment problem in Hong Kong. I am not so ambitious as to aim at solving this problem overnight. Nevertheless, to maintain the cleanliness of the urban area, improve the living environments and ensure food hygiene are the basic duties of the Urban Council. We all know that cooked food hawkers and unlicensed food premises in
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