HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD (Vending stalls for the aged and handicapped)

Encik Abdul Aziz Karim asked the Minister for Law and National Development if he will request the Housing and Development Board to construct vending stalls to be let out to the aged, handicapped and other categories of persons suffering from one form of disability or another to carry out petty hawking within their housing estates.

Mr Barker: Sir, the Housing and Development Board has tried out a scheme in one Housing Board estate to provide sweet-vending stalls on the ground floors of a few blocks of flats for aged persons to do petty hawking. However, there have been many complaints of noise nuisance and littering and problems of pedestrian obstruction and quarrels between the stallholders and the residents of ground floor flats. As the scheme was not successful, it was therefore decided not to extend the scheme to other Housing Board estates.