A borough chief yesterday sued Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) for allegedly failing to properly maintain facilities that could have prevented a massive flood when Typhoon Fanapi hit the city.
Benhe borough (本和里) chief Lin Chi-mei (林紀美) said he had collected 1,200 signatures in support of the initiative to sue Chen and city government officials, and filed a complaint with prosecutors demanding state compensation for loss of or damage to properties.
Both Chen and Lin are from the Democratic Progressive Party. However, Lin, who has not received the party’s nod, is running as an independent for re-election as borough chief.
More than 1,700 households and 600 cars were inundated during the typhoon on Sept. 19, Lin said, adding that the principal reason was a malfunction of water pumps installed in the Benhe Water Detention Pond.
“The Kaohsiung City Government did not conduct regular maintenance of the water pumps,” he said.
Accused of “dereliction of duty,” Chen said she welcomed an investigation into claims that the water pumps were out of order during the typhoon.
Chen added that she would not cover up any mistake committed by city government officials in terms of maintenance and operations of the water pumps.
Chen and the city government maintain that the rain accumulated too quickly during the typhoon, overwhelming the drains.
In related news, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said residents living in areas flooded by Fanapi would receive subsidies from the central government to install waterproof gates.
Responding to the appeal by Chen that the central government provide compensation for cars inundated during the storm, Wu said the Executive Yuan would look into the matter.
Chen has requested NT$1.06 billion (US$33.9 million) from the Executive Yuan in compensation, saying she hoped the central government would follow a precedent set in 1998, when Kaohsiung residents, with Wu serving as mayor then, received subsidies for cars damaged by floodwater.
However, the Executive Yuan issued a press release later yesterday rejecting Chen’s request.
The Executive Yuan rejected Chen’s claim that Wu had obtained a sum of money from the central government to offer compensation for people whose vehicles were damaged by the floods in 1998.
Wu requested NT$92 million from the central government, but received only NT$49.2 million, which was used to repair water-pumping and fire-fighting equipment and not distributed as compensation, it said.
It said that motorists whose cars or motorcycles were damaged in the flood could apply to get a refund for their license tax — calculated by multiplying the tax by the number of days during which their cars or motorcycles were under repair and then dividing the result by 365.
The Executive Yuan added that money used to repair flood-damaged cars or motorcycles — up to a maximum of NT$150,000 — can be used as a tax deductible when they file their annual income tax.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
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The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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