‘RM50 mln for Housing Assistance Programme’

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Fatimah (left) speaking at the press conference while Rodziah looks on. — Photo by Kong Jun Liung

KUCHING: The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development has allocated RM50 million for the state’s Housing Assistance Programme (PBR) this year.

Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the grant will benefit more than 2,000 recipients throughout the state who will receive the funds to either construct a new house or to repair the present ones.

“Around 450 recipients will receive the grant to construct a new house whereas 1,856 recipients will be able to repair their house when they receive the funds,” she told a press conference after chairing the Sarawak Poverty Eradication Focus Group meeting at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Petra Jaya here yesterday.

She acknowledged that applications for PBR were among the popular requests from the people, particularly those from the low-income group.

“We are aware there are a lot of people applying for PBR and hope that we continue to receive allocation for this programme every year,” she said.

Meanwhile, Fatimah also pointed out that eight hotspots had been identified for the Mobile Team programme this year.

“The identified hotspots are Sapit, Kakas and Kiding in Padawan, Perpat (Saratok), Kampung Buda (Spaoh), Rumah Empaling, Jelang (Spak), Rumah Emong Ng Woh, Ulu Mukah (Selangau), Ulu Baram (Marudi), Tubau (Bintulu) and Long Tangos, Long Ibau, Trusan (Lawas).”

According to her, the programme focused on the accessibility or inaccessibility of rural areas as well as the availability of basic facilities such as clean water supply, electric supply and others.

“The Mobile Team programme is an inter-agency collaboration which allows assistance to be integratedly provided, be it in form of generating income, education assistance, welfare, infrastructure and more,” she explained.

During the press conference, Fatimah also gave an update on the latest statistics on poverty from the state e-Kasih programme.

“At present, 25,941 people have been registered under e-Kasih and are categorised as hardcore poor, of which 57.97 per cent are in urban areas while 42.03 per cent are from rural areas.

“For the poor category, there are 34,411 people registered, of which 54.3 per cent are from urban areas while 45.7 per cent are in rural areas,” she revealed.

On another related matter, Fatimah said around 150 heads of households would be provided assistance through the ‘Beyond 1Azam’ initiative this year.

“This is a new initiative by the ministry to assist 1Azam programme participants in generating their economic activity and achieving a higher level of income.

“Under this initiative, participants who have successfully gotten out of poverty under the 1Azam programme will continue to be monitored as we would like to bring them towards another level,” she said, adding that around 5,000 heads of households were expected to benefit from the assistance programme this year.

Present at the press conference were Ministry of Welfare, Women and Family Development permanent secretary Rodziah Morshidi and state Federal Development Office deputy director-general Masnah Abang Abu Bakar.