A Selangor exco member has urged Tesco Malaysia Sdn Bhd to upgrade their security detail at its Ampang branch to protect women shoppers, as suggested by a local women’s group.

NONE During a visit to the hypermarket branch today, exco member Iskandar Abdul Samad expressed dissatisfaction that some of the proposals made by the Pandan Women’s Coalition.

last month had yet to be implemented.

Such suggestions includes parking lots labelled with the letter W which are specifically for women, to make the carpark better lit and to restrict motorcycles to a specific portion of the carpark.

Iskandar told reporters that the government has agreed to allocate some parking units for women but that they have to wait for the local authorities to act on the matter.

“For now, not much has been done. There is no increase in the number of security guards and there are no parking lots reserved for women.

NONE “I want the state government to ask Tesco why no actions have been done,” said Iskandar, whose portfolio includes housing, building management and squatters.

Earlier, Tesco’s government relations manager Mohd Elias Ismail gave Iskandar a short tour and demonstration of a device located throughout the carpark to record security guards making their rounds.

He also showed Iskandar bicycles and a buggy used by security guards as well as explaning to the exco member that the police van stationed at the supermarket had extended operating hours until 11pm.

Asked to comment about Iskandar’s criticism, Elias declined comment while the Tesco headquarters were already closed for the day at the time of writing.

Pandan Women's Coalition representative Basmatul Uyun Mohd Yusof explained that the movement will submit recommendations to other shopping centres and hypermarkets within the vicinity soon.