MP to help improve living conditions

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Norah (second left)), Bidai (second right) and others during a visit to Rumah Manggang, Kerubong.

SARIKEI: Tanjung Manis MP Datuk Norah Tun Abdul Rahman says she is committed to allocate a certain amount of her Minor Rural Project (MRP) fund to help her constituents improve their living conditions.

One of the ways, she said, is to assist them to have decent homes but due to limited funds the assistance would be accorded based on priority like helping the most deserving cases first.

Norah said this to concerning her visit to several longhouses in Kerubong, Kerapa and Sare area near here yesterday.

She told reporters that last year she had identified 18 longhouses in Kerubong, Kerapa and Sare area that were in dire need of repair and promised to assist them with building materials.

She said each unit would be allocated RM5,000 worth of building materials such as bricks, sand, metal rods, roofing materials, asbestos, tiles and sawn timber while workmanship would be done by longhouse folks on a ‘gotong royong’ basis.

For this year, the assistance would be delivered in two phases.

Assistance for eight longhouses under phase 1 was delivered during her visit yesterday.

Assistance for 10 longhouses under the second phase would be delivered within this year, she added.

As the assistance was an ongoing commitment, she advised local community leaders to help identify other deserving longhouses or individual houses and submit the list to her for further action.

Apart from assisting the people to repair their houses, she said  she would help the needy especially fire victims to apply for aid from various agencies such as Ministry of Rural and Regional Development and National Disaster Management Authority (Nadma).

The longhouses which had received the building materials in conjunction with Norah’s visit yesterday were Rumah Manggang, Rumah Patrick Mawat, Rumah Mudam Jaga, Rumah Engkang Sarap and residents of Rumah Saba Aling who were busy erecting temporary shelters following the loss of their 17-door longhouse in a fire on the morning of last April 9.

Meanwhile, according to a local community leader, Penghulu Bidai Ginsang, there are a total of 96 longhouses in Kuala Rajang area, of which 68 are located in Kerubong, Kerapa and Sare area.