JOHOR BAHRU: The welfare department (JKM) has immediately shut down the nursery believed to be linked to the abuse of two babies in Mutiara Rini, Skudai, Johor, after it was confirmed to have been operating without a licence.
Johor women, family and community development committee chairman Khairin Nisa Ismail said the childcare centre’s two other branches in Jalan Abdul Samad and Gelang Patah have also been closed.
Khairin, who inspected the nursery this morning, also met the operator of the nursery and sought further clarification on the matter.
“I found that the nursery had not obtained a licence from JKM because it had not yet obtained 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 had advised them not to operate without a licence but they were stubborn.
“As such, the three nurseries have been closed immediately by the state JKM under Section 20a of the Child Care Centre Act 1984,” she said when contacted.
She also advised parents to check with JKM whether the childcare centres they were sending their children to were licensed to operate.
Earlier, two videos had gone viral showing two babysitters in a nursery roughing up babies, drawing various reactions from netizens. Following that, a woman, believed to be a babysitter at the nursery, was remanded for four days from today.