KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — A tourist guides body wants the authorities to round up the homeless seen sleeping in the JB Sentral railway in Johor, calling them an “eyesore” that could affect the state’s tourism industry.

The Malaysian Tour Guides Council, an umbrella body representing over 5,000 tourist guides in the country, said the police should be “constantly” chasing away the vagrants who project an “unpleasant” image of Malaysia.

“Tour guides always try and project the positive image of the country. It is difficult when there are so many people lying around.

“It is especially unpleasant to see the groups within JB Sentral as it is a five-star facility which is used as our main entrance and exit point,” council president Jimmy Leong was quoted by The Star as saying.

Leong’s comments comes even as Putrajaya continues to earn brickbats for its crackdown on vagrancy in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the authorities in the local councils should actively “round up” the vagrants in JB Sentral, and that steps should be taken to prevent them from “getting comfortable” in the busy railway stop.

The Federal Territories ministry recently announced that soup kitchens are banned within a 2km radius of Lot 10 shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, situated in an area popular with visitors to the city. Infringing the ban will lead to a fine.

The ministry delayed the start of the ban to after Hari Raya after news of the ban caused outrage nationwide.

Most of the soup kitchens in the city are run by non-governmental organisations.

The FT ministry announced yesterday a set of new rules for mobile soup kitchens will be ready in two weeks, affecting only those forced to move out of central Kuala Lumpur to obey a recently announced ban.

The new guidelines do not apply to soup kitchens which distribute food in shoplots or places of worship.