Legislators seek details before discussing councils' fate
Lawmakers vowed yesterday to refuse to discuss proposals for the abolition of the two municipal councils unless the Government provided details of how services would be improved.
They accused the administration of rushing through the plan to scrap the bodies, without being genuinely determined to reform food safety and environmental hygiene services.
The criticisms follow government admissions that details of how the new system would work at departmental level would not be available until the end of the year.
Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming said the fate of the councils should not be discussed before details were mapped out.
'The Government's mission is to kill the two councils,' he said.
'That's why it wants to rush through that part but drag its feet on services.' Ambrose Cheung Wing-sum, representing the Provisional Urban Council, said the Government should have a comprehensive plan.
The Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Michael Suen Ming-yeung, admitted that officials were focusing on policy levels.
'The details are unrelated to the bill we are going to table in April,' he said, referring to the Provision of Municipal Services Bill, stipulating the abolition of the two municipal councils.
