Exhibition without permit-Workers’ party town will be fined 800 yuan

You Runtian reports

The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council held a temporary exhibition outside the Hougang subway station for 22 days before the Lunar New Year this year was fined 800 yuan by the state court yesterday. However, the towns and cities will deliberately enter the High Court, and through higher-level legal channels, it is necessary to clarify the necessity of seeking the consent of the grass-roots and the chamber of commerce when organizing the fairs.

National Court Judge Yang Qiying agreed with the prosecution’s position that the city council should be severely punished. He said: “Few fines will send the wrong information, so that people who intend to hold temporary exhibitions in the future will think that they can choose to ignore the repeated warnings issued by management agencies or reckless agencies.”

The maximum fine for first offenders under this regulation is 1,000 yuan.

The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC), managed by the Workers’ Party, is the first local town hall to be fined for holding an exhibition fair.

From January 9th to 30th this year, it held a “2014 Community Flower Market and New Year’s Market” that sells annual flowers, potted plants, new year decorations, and snacks. After receiving a subpoena from the Environment Bureau, it refused to pay 500 yuan. The fine was cancelled, and he was pleaded not guilty after being charged in a national court. He completed a three-day trial in October this year.

Defence lawyers Liu Bide, Chen Lizheng, and Liu Yingli, who represented the town council, said in their courtship submissions that the council would have the will to abide by the law and that it would be “substantially complied” to the State Environment Agency for the application for exhibition sales. Will pass the conditions set. Two of the conditions were not met-seeking support from the chairman of the district’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee and the Chamber of Commerce, because the two conditions were considered unreasonable and outside the scope of the Environment Bureau’s terms of reference.

Chen Junjie, the chief prosecutor of the Environment Bureau, retorted that whether the conditions met when applying for a permit was reasonable was not determined by the applicant unilaterally. After all, the applicant was not the management agency that issued the permit.

When Liu Bide pleaded in court yesterday, he also pointed out that Congress enacted Article 35 of the Environmental Public Health Act to avoid food hygiene, traffic congestion, noise, and pests, but there is no evidence to suggest that the town hall ’s exhibition in January this year The sale will bring any problems in this regard. In addition, “the trade fair did not cause problems similar to that of Bukit Batok rats.”

Chen Junjie countered that the rhetoric of the town council repeatedly showed that it did not realize the seriousness of the crime and did not have a trace of remorse. Instead, it continued to accuse the Environment Bureau of unreasonableness, attempting to disrupt the audiovisual so as to argue for its own unreasonable behavior.

“We respect the ruling of the court and pay fines, but we are not satisfied with the results,” said Lin Ruilian, the chairman of the Workers’ Party, who is also the chairman of AHPETC.

She reiterated: “Our original intention in this lawsuit was not to create trouble for government agencies, but this issue involves the public interest. How should government agencies implement the powers granted to them by the state, and whether they should exercise a fair and equitable attitude when performing their powers? ? “

Town Council or through high court

In addition to appeals, the council’s other option is to file a judicial review. Lin Ruilian indicated that the town will discuss with lawyers in the next few days, and may pursue further through the high court.

“Today is Christmas Eve, but the Hougang Centre’s event centre is empty, and we can’t do events there that are good for residents and nearby shops. This also affects the income source that the towns use to pay for operations. “

She pointed out that in addition to the miscellaneous fees and government funds paid by residents and shops, the income of the town council also includes the collection of rent from temporary vendors. Click here