PETALING JAYA: An economist has urged Putrajaya and consumers to do more to tackle the rising prices of essential goods, amid complaints that basic food items like eggs have increased in cost since the general election last year.Barjoyai Bardai from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak said the rising prices were largely tied to issues of supply and demand, with FMT’s checks of data from a leading hypermarket showing that some essentials have gone up in cost.Between the May 9 polls and Feb 18, the price of grade C eggs went up by 36.6% per tray from RM9 to RM12.30.During the same period, the price of whole chickens went up 10.7% from RM7 per kg to RM7.75. Long beans increased by 26.3% from RM5.46 to RM6.90 per bundle, dipping to RM3.05 in late August before going up again. The price of Indian mackerel and sotong putih, meanwhile, increased by just over 2%.Some goods, like round spinach, remain unchanged in price, while others went down, like frozen buffalo slice which slid 7.1% from RM12.51 to RM11.61.

Barjoyai said when it comes to essential goods, especially eggs and chicken, the problem is that a few producers control the market.“In the case of long beans, it is a vegetable with a lower yield than spinach, so it is more prone to supply and demand factors,” he added.Such shifts in price could see an adult spending at least RM300 a month on food, he said.He suggested that the government intervene by issuing more import permits for food items when prices of certain goods go up. This, he said, would boost supply and help bring prices down.He gave the example of tapioca in Thailand, which he said was easily five times cheaper than it is in Malaysia.“Even at the pasar tani, tapioca sells for around RM1 per kg while in Thailand, it can be as low as 20 sen per kg.”Acknowledging that the government might want to protect local producers by limiting imports, he cautioned however that this was only a short-term measure to help industry players when starting out.

Read more: Govt should tackle rising cost of food items, but so can consumers, economist says

PASIR MAS: The dry spell that hit Kelantan in the past two weeks has caused the water level in Sungai Golok to drop to 3.58m, way below its normal level of 5m.A check by Bernama in Rantau Panjang found that sandbanks could be seen in the middle of Sun­gai Golok which posed challenges to boat operators ferrying passengers from both sides of the river.In Kampung Jeram Perdah near here, the dry spell turned the river into a “ditch” with only a 4m distance between Malaysia and Thai­land.As a result, residents living nearby could cross to the neighbouring country on foot by stepping on the rocks in the riverbed.One of the boat operators, Din Mamat, 50, said they had to be more careful in navigating their boats for fear of hitting timber, sand and rocks in shallow water.He said there were incidents where boats caught in the sand suffered engine damage.

“However, the dry spell also attracted the attention of local residents, especially children from both sides of the river, to bathe in the shallow water in the evening.“If the dry spell continues, I expect there will be another water festival along the river similar to a few years ago when many came to play and picnic and some traders even set up stalls selling stuff,” he said yesterday.A resident of Kampung Jeram Perdah, Ismail Awang, 60, said the dry spell had also caused boat operators’ business to slow as people could now cross the border on foot.“Besides, this area is also known to be the focus of fishing activity but as the water level continues to drop, it may soon pose challenges for the fishermen fishing here,” he said.The Kelantan Department of Irrigation and Drainage’s portal showed that apart from Sungai Go­lok, the water level of Sungai Kelantan in Kusial, Tanah Merah, has dropped to 7.30m, below its normal level of 10m.

Read more: Sungai Golok water level drops to 3.6m from 5m

KOTA TINGGI, 6 Mac (Bernama) -- Semua pengusaha industri pelancongan disaran menyediakan latihan keselamatan dan pelan kecemasan komprehensif untuk menyelamatkan kakitangan, pelancong dan orang ramai jika berlaku kemalangan di premis mereka.Pengerusi Institut Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan Negara (NIOSH) Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye berkata setiap kakitangan dalam industri pelancongan perlu diberikan latihan mencukupi agar mereka tahu cara-cara mengenalpasti risiko dan cara menanganinya berdasarkan konsep “HIRARC” (Pengenalpastian Bahaya, Penaksiran Risiko dan Kawalan Risiko).“Majikan perlu melaksanakan latihan keselamatan sebagai sebahagian daripada rancangan pengurusan keselamatan dan kesihatan pekerjaan (KKP) agar semua kakitangan bersedia menghadapi sebarang jenis kecemasan,” katanya ketika berucap merasmikan Seminar dan Dialog Pemerkasaan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan di Sektor Pelancongan Johor di sini, hari ini.

PETALING JAYA: From “interviews” in coffeeshops to being persuaded to work in war-torn countries with lucrative salaries, Malaysians are being increasingly conned into travelling to work overseas, only to run into trouble.This has prompted the Labour Department to advise those wishing to work overseas to only use the services of licensed private recruitment companies.Seeking the services of licensed private job agencies under the Labour Department as provided in the Private Employment Agencies Act (1981) would help one avoid being conned or exploited by unscrupulous agents or employers overseas, it said.“There’s a possibility that high salaries offered has become a pull factor in enticing Malaysians to work overseas.The Labour Department, which is under the Human Resources Minis­try, was responding to queries about the increasing media reports highlighting Malaysians being conned in overseas jobs.

While the Labour Department said it did not have any records on the numbers of overseas job scam cases affecting Malaysians, it encou­rages those with information on such cases to come forward.“We have not received reports on job scams. However, victims can file a report with the Labour Department, including in Sabah and Sarawak for any job scams issues so that we can act accordingly,” it said.MCA Public Services and Com­plaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said many of the job scam victims he encountered were enticed to work in Afri­can or Middle Eastern countries.“Many of these countries are war-torn and so these ‘employment agents’ would tell the victims there is a lot of construction work to rebuild the country.“These victims are mostly semi-skilled or unskilled workers who are attracted to the salaries which are supposedly from RM6,000 to RM10,000 a month,” he said.However, he said, these victims were then cheated out of their salaries and left with little to no protection in a foreign country.

Read more: Don’t get conned, Malaysians warned