COOKED FOOD AND MARKET-PRODUCE STALLS (Vacancies)

Mr Teo Chong Tee asked the Minister for the Environment how many cooked food and market-produce stalls under the management of the Housing and Development Board and his Ministry are still vacant and whether these stalls will be re-opened for application.

Dr Ahmad Mattar: Mr Speaker, Sir, currently, markets and food centres that will not be affected by redevelopment have 2,100 vacant stalls, and of these, 327 are cooked food stalls and the remaining 1,773 are market-produce stalls. All vacant cooked food stalls are being reserved for stallholders affected by redevelopment. This is because the number of stallholders to be relocated is more than the vacancies.

For the market-produce stalls, the Ministry of the Environment is examining how best these vacancies can be taken up. Once finalised, details will be made known.