BUKIT MERTAJAM, Jan 22 ― The Penang Road Transport Department (RTD) has found public transport vehicles are taking it easy and not complying with the stipulated standard operating procedures (SOP) a week after the implementation of MCO 2.0 in the state.
Penang RTD director, Adenan Md Isa said based on monitoring conducted by RTD in the past two days, it was found lorries, express buses and taxis have failed to display ‘My Sejahtera” sticker, did not check body temperature and did not have approval for long-distance travel.
“Since the MCO was reimposed, Penang RTD has been involved in operation with police at roadblocks under Ops Covid and we found lorries, express buses and taxis are starting to breach the SOP, thinking the authorities would not conduct meticulous inspection and an express bus driver even attempted to deceive the authorities by claiming he was taking passengers to Taiping but checks with passengers found the bus was heading to Kuala Lumpur.
“So RTD and the Ministry of Health (MoH) issued them summonses,” he told reporters after Ops Covid in collaboration with police and MoH at Juru toll plaza here today.
Adenan said Penang RTD issued 500 summonses in the operation since MCO began on January 13 for various offences especially in technical areas such as modifying vehicles, driving with no road tax and expired driving licences.
“In general, Ops Covid-19 targeted compliance on SOP as outlined by the government via the National Security Council (MKN),” he said.
He said in the operation, RTD focused on offences under the Road Transport Act 1987, Land Public Transport Act 2010 and the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987. ― Bernama
