He said the road involved was just an inner road while the traders there had been operating legally for years, Berita Harian reported.
“They are licensed, and this is their source of income. So when DBKL came to demolish their stalls the other day, they were very shocked,” said Johari, who is also the plantation and commodities minister.
“Why demolish these stalls to widen a road that isn’t a main road?” he asked, calling for the project to be put on hold while DBKL holds talks with stakeholders.
Johari also asked if 60 other stalls further down the road would also have to make way for a road-widening project one day.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll help the traders’
Separately, federal territories minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said DBKL had been engaging with the nine stall owners since November, acknowledging that they were licensed.
She said some of them had already agreed to move while others refused to budge.
Zaliha said the traders did not need to worry about losing their source of income as the federal territories department and DBKL would ensure that they have an alternative location for their stalls.
“We are supposed to meet them again this month to discuss where they will be moved to. This is part of our ‘Lestari Niaga’ project (to upgrade and beautify food stalls in KL) so I think they don’t have to worry.
“We will do our best to help them and place them elsewhere, while giving them the facilities needed to open their stalls again,” she said when met by reporters at SMK Cochrane here.
Zaliha also said that the road widening project needed to be expedited and was necessary for public use.
“I have asked the federal territories department and DBKL to meet the traders immediately and give them several options for new places to operate.”
DBKL previously said the hawkers were told to vacate the site on Jan 15, but a final notice was only issued on July 4.
During an operation to demolish the stalls on Tuesday, a man got into a brief stand-off with DBKL officers, brandishing a parang and shouting profanities at the officers.
He was calmed down by members of the public before being arrested by the police.