Following a briefing with the Road Transport Department on the controversial Automatic Enforcement System, the Selangor government has confirmed its decision not to allow its implementation in the state, saying it was not convinced of the system's effectiveness in reducing accidents.
Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim said the briefing by RTD director general Solah Mat Hassan revealed the inability of the Transport minister to get approval from local councils for erecting AES structures.
“Hence, the state government has instructed all local councils to inform the ministry stating the installation of AES cameras has violated laws, and must not be implemented until this is fulfilled,” he said.
Khalid added the state government would appoint independent evaluators to study whether the Transport ministry had taken all the necessary steps before implementing AES.
The Bandar Tun Razak member of parliament also called for a review of the agreement between AES concessionaires Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd and ATES Sdn Bhd, and the Federal government.
Khalid described the 17 percent profit to be allocated to the concessionaires as inappropriate, adding that revenue collected from summonses should be channelled to a trust fund to be used for road safety awareness programmes.
“With that, the people will pay summonses as contribution to the government (trust fund) rather than enriching businessmen,” he said, insisting that concessionaires should not aim to profit at the cost of the people.
Meanwhile, Beta Tegap had denied it was linked to Johor UMNO politicians.
Malaysiakini had quoted the company chairman Nik Ismail Nik Mohamed acknowledging that the father of its largest shareholder Rozana Redzuan was an UMNO member, but he had died 12 years ago.
"This is highly insensitive and clearly a cheap publicity," he said.
-Harakahdaily
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