Responding to Hannah Yeoh, police clarify that food delivery riders fined for eating at park, closed stall without physical distancing

KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 ― The police today confirmed several food delivery riders were issued compound notices for violating the movement control order (MCO) as Hannah Yeoh disclosed yesterday, but not without justification as the Segambut MP suggested.

Sentul district police chief ACP Beh Eng Lai was responding to Yeoh’s tweets highlighting the plight of several delivery riders who told her that they were issued compound notices for eating at a field.

“The police confirm that eight compound notices were issued to e-hailing food delivery riders on June 1, 2021, 10.25am at a playground at Taman Segambut, Sentul for the offence of eating in a group without ensuring physical distancing.

“On June 2, 2021, 3.55pm, four more compounds were issued on four e-hailing food delivery riders at an empty stall that was not in business by the roadside at Batu 3, Jalan Ipoh, Sentul on the offence of eating as a group without ensuring physical distancing,” Beh said in a statement today.

Beh said that all these riders had been advised to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the MCO but they allegedly ignored this.

He added that the police were forced to take firm action in enforcing the law under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act to break the chain of Covid-19 infections.

He advised the public to always comply with the SOPs by not gathering to an extent that it is difficult to maintain physical distancing, and to wear their face masks.

He added that anyone who has any information could contact the Sentul district police station’s operation room at 03-40482206.

Yesterday afternoon, Yeoh wrote that six riders who deliver items on their motorcycles had contacted her to say that they had been issued compound notices in two different locations while they were waiting for the next order and eating on the field.

Yeoh pointed out that such riders do not have a workplace, and suggested that it was not even safe for them to eat by the roadside.

According to Yeoh, the notices to compound the offences issued to them had required them to visit the district health office to find out the amount of fine that they should pay.

In the same series of tweets, Yeoh pleaded with enforcement officers to understand the reality where income earned may not be sufficient to cover the amount required to compound, suggesting that it may be more “prihatin” or caring to give a warning or the appropriate SOP as compared to offering to compound offences.

“We want to fight Covid, together with educating and understanding the needy and those working hard to find a halal income,” she had said in the tweets, adding that she had helped to write appeal letters and hoped for assistance from the district health office.

She also expressed hope that the National Security Council would free health officers at district health offices from the burden of such administrative tasks.