Kedah wants second-hand dealers act to be amended

ALOR SETAR: Kedah has once again urged that the Second-Hand Dealers Act 1946 be amended fast to curb telecommunication cable theft which has become rampant in the state.
State Science, Innovation and Information Technology, Communications and High Technology, and Human Resources Committee chairman, Datuk Norsabrina Abdullah (pix) said such a proposal had been made before to the Cabinet and had now become urgent in the current situation.
"Amending the act will be the best step to overcome the problem of cable theft occurring in Kedah and across the country as currently, anyone can buy and sell stolen cables.
"Although most of the copper cables have been replaced with optical fibres, cable theft is still rampant as there is a demand for it," she said after the launching of Webe Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), here, yesterday.
Norsabrina said cable thefts had caused communication problems for the rural folk due to limited telecommunication access.

"Generally, senior citizens in the rural areas use fixed telephone lines to communicate as they are less adept at using the mobile phone, but cable thefts have hampered them.
"In my state constituency, Kulim Bandar Baharu, the problem persists as Telekom Malaysia (TM) had re-fixed the cables four times, yet it got stolen again," she lamented.
Meanwhile, Norsabrina said upgrading of telecommunication infrastructure was going on, including from 2G to 4G, involving 41 telecommunication towers across the state.
"This upgrading process is done in stages and expected to be fully completed by the end of this month (July) in five districts, Sik, Pendang, Padang Terap, Baling and Bandar Baharu.
"We also plan to add more telecommunication towers within the next three years, with the number required to be based on the need of an area," she said. — Bernama