A TOTAL of RM35,000 was raised during a charity fair organised by the Taiping Community Services Association (Esda) to help the poor in Taiping and Bagan Serai.

The event, held at Esda premises in Jalan King Edward in Taiping, however failed to meet the association’s target of raising RM50,000.

Esda founding director Stephen Chow said the money would be fully utilised to help the poor.

Pokok Assam assemblyman Yee Seu Kai opened the fair on behalf of Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming and he thanked the public for their support and hope more people would donate generously to Esda.

Among the volunteers were from the Penang Wesley Methodist Church, Penang Christian Centre (PCC), Taiping Buddhist Society, Taiping churches, the Rotary Club and the New Club of Taiping.

IPOH: The Perak government will seek funds to construct Syariah Courts in three districts - Taiping, Teluk Intan and Seri Iskandar.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said this was because the districts were currently renting the premises of various religious departments.

“We will try our best to find enough funds to build these Syariah Courts for the people.

“It is our hope that even at the district level, these courts stand as a symbol of justice for the people,” he said at a press conference after attending the official launch of the RM33.4mil Perak Syariah Court here on Wednesday.

TAIPING: The Kerian district health office has placed a national service camp in Semanggol, near here, under quarantine.

At least 10 of its 300 trainees have been warded at the Taiping Hospital over the past few days while 80 others are being treated at the camp for an outbreak of a yet-to-be identified fever.

With the quarantine, it is learnt that all the trainees, who were supposed to return home for their weeklong break from yesterday to May 14, have to remain in the camp pending the outcome of the result of their blood tests.

A parent of one of the trainees tipped reporters here about the quarantine after his son, who was supposed to be at a bus terminal yesterday to return home, failed to turn up.

SILTING in Sungai Matang is preventing fishing trawlers from navigating up-river to berth their vessels at the jetties located in Teluk Kertang near Taiping.

But to ensure the livelihood of the fisher-men is not affected by the problem, a local businessman, Oh Seok Oon, has decided to undertake a desilting task, a job which is normally carried out and commissioned by the state government.

“The river has become very shallow now and some 70 fishing trawlers operating here cannot access their local jetties upriver,” said Oh, who runs a fleet of fishing trawlers.

He said due to the problem fishing trawlers now anchored at Sungai Matang mouth when they returned from the sea with their catch.

“Smaller boats are commissioned to transport the catch. This not only involves more work but manpower to carry out the task,” he said.

Oh said this when he accompanied Kuala Sepetang assemblyman Tai Sing Ng on a fact-finding trip to the fishing village to evaluate the problem.

He said the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) carried out the last desil-ting exercise some 10 years ago.

IPOH: Perak is counting on the Federal Government to adhere to its promise to distribute the funds allocated for the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) fairly to the four participating states.

State executive councillor Nga Kor Ming said Perak was willing to work with the Government now that the state had officially adopted the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority Act 2008.

"We in Perak place high hopes on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's announcement to allocate RM176bil for the NCER initiative," he told a press conference here on Friday.

Law Tzuo Hann, who calls himself ’crazy guy on bike’, showing the crowd in 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya, the winter jacket that he uses to keep warm while cycling through snowstorms.

PEOPLE are always inquisitive when they are given food covered by a crisp or skin. The popiah is one, for instance. Although it is a simple enough snack to start with, it is always up to debate or to liven up any tea as to what makes good popiah filling, and of course, the chilli sauce that comes with it is just as important as the teatime favourite itself.

There are many variations to popiah and there are as many versions to the most perfect skin there is to be had for it.

It must be thin enough and strong enough to withstand the moisture that would seep into it from the ingredients.

There are two types of popiah that are thoroughly popular here – the white skin and the deep-fried version.

WHEN her husband died in 1999, Lee Yik Chai stood to inherit a 0.2ha plot of land near Taiping which was owned by him. But upon checking, she found that the plot size had been reduced by 50% to 0.1ha.

She then sought the help of Bukit Gantang MCA chairman Datuk Ho Cheng Wang who managed to solve the problem.

Ho, who is also Perak MCA secretary, felt that Lee’s predicament could also befall other landowners.

He said he did not wish to point fingers on who the culprit was, but hoped Lee’s experience would be a reminder to other landowners to keep tabs on their land titles, especially titles which bore multiple beneficiaries.

Lee said a 0.5ha of agriculture land in the sub-district of Jebong near Taiping was divided among four beneficiaries before her husband’s death. Her late husband was alloted 40% of the plot while three other relatives were each given a 20% share.

The daily also reported a strange tale of a contractor who had to lodge a police report against his customer who refused to return RM1,300 after he managed to locate the customer’s dog in Taiping.

It all began when the contractor and his team were hired by the man to fix his roof. While the workmen were at the house, the owner’s dog ran away. The house owner lodged a police report against the contractor.

He demanded RM1,300 and agreed to return the money to the contractor if he found the dog. The contractor found the dog two days later but the house owner refused to return the money.

TAIPING: The only wholly-owned Malaysian textile plant, set up over three decades ago at the Kamunting industrial estate here, will close shop next month for a restructuring exercise.

But there is still a glimmer of hope for its retrenched staff – provided the government changes its procurement policy on where it sources textiles for its uniformed personnel.

State Health, Environment and Human Resources Committee chairman A. Sivanesan said the government spent about RM500mil to procure textiles for its uniformed personnel.

“But the textiles for the army and the police are sourced from foreign countries by contractors assigned to provide such uniforms.