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Public Health and Municipal Services (Amendment) Bill
Following is the speech by the acting Secretary for Recreation and Culture, Mrs Rita Lau, at the resumption of the second reading debate on Public Health and Municipal Services (Amendment), Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I
I am very grateful to Members for their support of the Public Health and Municipal Services (Amendment) Bill 1996.
.:
As I have explained when I introduced the Bill into this Council on 15 May 1996, the purpose of the Bill is to facilitate early removal of articles which are causing obstructions to scavenging or street sweeping operations. At present, law enforcement officers need to give at least 24 hours notice to the owner of an obstructing article before the article can be removed. This is obviously undesirable as the effectiveness of scavenging operations would be severely hindered by the unduly long notice. To address this problem, it is necessary to shorten the minimum period of notice given to the owner. This Bill proposes to shorten the period from 24 hours to within 4 hours and this would certainly provide an effective tool to enhance scavenging operations.
End
h
"One-route one-airline" policy explained
Following is a question by the Hon Christine Loh and a reply by the acting Secretary for Economic Services, Mr Leo Kwan, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
It was announced recently that an agreement had been reached between the Swire Group, CITIC Pacific and China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) over the ownership rights of Dragon Air and Cathay Pacific Airways. In view of the fact had been that prior to the announcement of the agreement, the Government entertaining an application by CNAC for a licence to launch an airline in Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council whether the Government has changed the "one-route one-airline" policy and whether, in principle, any qualified party may obtain such a licence?