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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
They either dissuade Members, or remain silent as if they knew nothing, or employ the stalling tactic. So far no undertaking has been made on the problem of hawker control.
I wish to point out that the hygiene of food premises is the performance report based on which the public evaluates the Council's services directly. If we could not do our job properly in this area, it would be futile to talk about development in art, sports etc, because we could not handle the most basic problem of environmental hygiene. I therefore appeal to my colleagues to step up follow-up action on the work of the USD staff in the select committee concerned.
What's more important is the problem of unlicensed hawkers operating at nighttime. As stipulated in the performance pledge, districts with more complaints are inspected by regional task forces outside the working hours after 9:30 p.m., which has a deterrent effect on other districts. But the frequency of inspection is less than once a month. Such is the performance in the area of hawker control.
We reflected our views to the task forces through the select committee on a number of occasions and urged the Department to improve the situation. This has dragged on for two years. We look forward to more prompt action in future. In tackling this problem, time and again we feel the presence of a strong bureaucratic influence of the Department. You could by all means make the policy but I got the counter-measure. Any policy which we hope might bring in improvement often comes to nothing because of stalling on the part of the Department. I hope we will acquaint ourselves well with this important issue and work harder on the various select committees in the days to come. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese): I have already notified the Secretariat that I will leave earlier because of official duties. I will have to leave the meeting now. Would the Vice-Chairman please chair the meeting on my behalf? Sorry everybody.
(The rest of the meeting was chaired by Vice-Chairman, Mr. IP Kwok-chung.)
Vice-Chairman (in Cantonese): It is now Mr. Stanley NG Wing-fai's turn to speak.
MR. STANLEY NG WING-FAI (in Cantonese): A number of colleagues have spoken just now on different areas and I am going to say something about capital projects and the liquor licensing policy.
About capital projects, today's motion aptly reflects the need to subject ourselves to public vigilance and therefore, we should enhance public involvement in this area. The same can be said of the liquor licensing board
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