After fire, Uptown Puchong traders deny 'no permit' claim
Traders at Uptown Puchong Permai have denied claims by Seri Serdang assemblyperson Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud that the night bazaar was set up without a planning permit.
According to Puchong Permai Uptown Traders Association president Zulfahmi Mohd Affandi, the site had been granted an operation permit while traders were given a group license in 2011.
Traders at Uptown Puchong Permai have denied claims by Seri Serdang assemblyperson Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud that the night bazaar was set up without a planning permit.
According to Puchong Permai Uptown Traders Association president Zulfahmi Mohd Affandi, the site had been granted an operation permit while traders were given a group license in 2011.
"We have TNB electricity metres, Syabas water metres […] so how can (Siti Mariah say) there is no permit?" he told Malaysiakini yesterday.
The Uptown Puchong Permai bazaar was razed in an early morning fire on Feb 2 that destroyed some 200 lots and recorded some RM1 million in estimated losses.
Siti Mariah told Malaysiakini that the original operators of the night market would be held accountable for the fire and efforts are ongoing to identify them.
She also claimed that the night market which first opened in 2011 did not receive any planning permission from the local council - written permission issued after approval of a change of land use conditions before the actual development stage.
While Zulfahmi insisted that permission was granted to set up the night market, he conceded that the traders' group license was not renewed in 2012 while the Subang Jaya Municipal Council had in 2014 officially ended an agreement for them to use the land.
Reasons for the non-renewal of the traders' group license remains unclear but Zulfahmi claimed the agreement to use the site as a night bazaar was terminated following "internal disputes in the management companies."
Commenting further, he said the current traders' association had taken over management of the site in 2014 from two private companies and MPSJ had knowledge of this.
He added that a meeting was held between MPSJ, the former management companies and traders in 2014 to discuss the issue of the terminated agreement.
"After the agreement was terminated, the companies could no longer manage the site, so we (the current association) took over.
"MPSJ still comes here to update (their database with the traders' detail). The last time being two weeks ago," he said.
Following the fire, Zulfahmi said the traders are now seeking assistance from various parties particularly for relocation to a new site or to set up temporary stalls.
