[JMLot]

Published: Thursday October 14, 2010 MYT 3:57:00 PM

7,000 NS dodgers to do community service next year

By ROSHIDI ABU SAMAH

IPOH: More than 7,000 National Service (NS) dodgers are expected to do communitiy service, including landscaping works, cleaning drains, garbage collection and painting buildings, next year. Social Welfare Department director (community service orders) Zaimi Abdul Rani said the dodgers would be supervised by staff members of local councils. "It is a punishment and not a form of torture.

They will be doing the work normally done by the council employees. "The only difference is that the dodgers will not be paid for the work done," he told reporters here Thursday before briefing local council representatives in Perak about the community service programme. The briefing was opened by State Local Government committee chairman Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

Zaimi said the programme was previously carried out at institutions under the department, for first-time minor offenders aged between 18 and 21. The programme has been expanded to the local councils, with participation of NS dodgers in 2011. He said local councils were the best platform for community service as activities carried out by the participants would benefit society directly.

Moreover, he said, local councils could conduct more activities than the institutions under the department. He said community service was introduced for dodgers when amendments were made to the National Service Training Act 2003, which came into force on Nov 1, 2009. Prior to this, anyone who failed to attend the compulsory training could be fined up to RM3,000 or jailed not more than six months, or both.