KUALA LUMPUR: Overcrowding at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) due to thousands of people turning up to take advantage of the up to 80% discount for selected traffic summonses has forced the payment counters to close.
The police and Road Transport Department (JPJ) summons payment counters at KLCC were ordered to close immediately by the Ministry of Health to ease congestion at the 100-day Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia event which was held at the same venue.
The second day of the discount offer saw long lines at several state police headquarters as the MyBayar Saman portal was still down. The four-day offer ends tomorrow.
Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department director Comm Datuk Mat Kasim Karim said the payment counters at KLCC would not be reopened due to concerns over Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance.
He advised the public to go to district or state police headquarters in all states to pay their summonses.
“We have extended the operational hours for the counters at district and state police headquarters from 8.30am until 5pm. We hope the public can cooperate and settle their summonses at these locations,” he said.
Comm Mat Kasim said he was aware of the overwhelming response from the public, who wanted to take advantage of such an opportunity to settle their summonses.
“We hope members of the public will cooperate by complying with the SOP such as maintaining physical distancing and wearing face masks,” he added.
Comm Mat Kasim is aware of public grievances due to their failure to access the MyBayar Saman portal.
“We are trying our best to upgrade the system to accommodate the high traffic of users.
“The system clogged up on Thursday due to a high number of users.
“Discounts are not offered for summonses pertaining to accidents, overtaking on double lines, using the emergency lane, running through a red light, overtaking dangerously, non-compoundable offences, heavy vehicle-related offences and modification of vehicle exhausts,” he said.
Retirees Nor Ashikin Mokhti and Mukhtar Abu, both in their late 50s, were among the many who stood in line as the doors opened at KLCC at 9am.
“I know that we can also pay the summonses at the police station and since we have summonses from both the police and JPJ, we thought we might as well settle them here,” she said.
Nor Ashikin added that she read about the discount online and was hoping to take full advantage of it.
“I have to settle a few, which comes to around RM1,000 before discount so if I can get the full 80% off, that is a lot of money saved,” the former NGO worker said.
Chong, a 38-year-old banker, applied for a day off to settle his outstanding summons.
“I came at around 10.30am and it’s almost noon now, so I’ve been here for quite a while. They should have expected the crowd,” he said.
In Kepala Batas, a pensioner with 38 traffic summonses paid RM2,280 after the 80% discount.
Muhammad Rizwan Abdullah, 61, arrived early at the police traffic department before the counters were opened at 9am.
“I have more than 30 outstanding summonses from the last 10 years and I did not want to miss out on the discounts offered,” he said.
At the George Town police district headquarters, a factory worker, who wanted to be known as Lim, said the police should have set up more payment counters to accommodate the huge crowd.
“The crowd can be spread out evenly in order to observe the SOP better,” he said, adding that the offer should be extended.
Penang Traffic and Public Order Department chief Supt Zafri Zolkapli said: “The response has been good since the offer started on Thursday.”
In Johor Baru, state Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department deputy chief Deputy Supt Khairul Azhar Ismail said police had so far collected summon payments amounting to RM1.6mil since the discount started on Thursday.