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EPD talks tough, but no fines

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Good to see that the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has intensified its efforts in enforcing the idling engine law that took effect on December 15. We noted last month that as of March 30, the EPD had issued zero fines. The EPD said recently it had conducted 165 roadside publicity and joint enforcement actions in total, 58 more since the end of March. And traffic wardens have continued to crack down on drivers who violate the law. But despite the improved activity, no fines have been levied.

However, the EPD assures us that with summer approaching, it has stepped up the ongoing publicity activities to remind drivers to observe the law. They include staging outdoor roving exhibitions between May and June. “Meanwhile, environmental protection inspectors and traffic wardens will continue to strengthen roadside publicity and joint enforcement actions,” the EPD said.

As widely predicted, this law has been so watered down that it is meaningless and the enforcement has been pathetic, as the EPD’s figures indicate. It’s another feather in the cap for Environment Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah, who, if nothing else over the past five years, has perfected that age-old art of “all talk and no action”.

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