JOHOR BARU: The Social Welfare Department (JKM) has ordered the closure of a nursery in Mutiara Rini, Skudai, believed to be involved in the abuse of two babies recently.
State Women, Family and Community Development Committee chairman Khairin-Nisa Ismail @ Md On said the childcare centre's two other branches in Jalan Abd Samad and Gelang Patah were also ordered to close.
Khairin-Nisa, who inspected the nursery this morning, the order was made after it was confirmed the nursery had been operating without a licence.
She also met the operator of the nursery and sought further clarification on the matter.
"I found that the nursery has yet to obtain a licence from JKM as it has not received permission from the local authorities, the Johor Health Department and the Fire and Rescue Department.
"If permission has not been obtained from these three parties, JKM cannot issue a licence. Even before this, we have advised them not to operate without a licence but they are stubborn and continued to operate.
"As such, the three nurseries were immediately closed, under Section 20a of the Child Care Centre Act 1984," she said when contacted, here, today, adding that she also advised parents to check with JKM before sending their children to nurseries to ensure that they are licensed.
Earlier, two videos had gone viral showing two babysitters in a nursery roughing up babies, drawing various reactions from netizens and, following that, a woman believed to be a babysitter at the nursery was remanded for four days to assist police investigations. -- Bernama