Chong urges Uggah, Welfare Dept to deliver food aid immediately to needy families

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Chong (left) meeting Uggah to deliver the letter containing details of families in dire need of help.

KUCHING: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen is urging the Welfare Department to act quickly to the plight of families affected by the Movement Control Order (MCO) who are running out of essentials and food supplies.

He said this in a statement after he delivered a letter to the Chief Minister’s Office, which contained details of families in dire need of help.

Chong said he met Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah when delivering the letter and he was pleased that Uggah had taken immediate action.

“He has taken immediate action to contact the minister in charge of the Welfare Department, Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah for urgent action to be taken.

“A big thanks to Uggah for his quick action. We hope the Welfare Department will act quickly so that the applicants and their families will not go hungry in the next few days,” said Chong.

Chong said his team had submitted the names and details of the families affected by the order and are running out of food supplies – and had no money to resupply – to the Welfare Department in batches since March 30.

However,none of the families have received any supplies or response from the department, he said.

“At 2pm today our members have contacted almost all of the 238 applicants whose particulars were in the first batch of names whom we have submitted to the Welfare Department on March 30. None of them have received any essential food items from the Welfare Department.

“As such, I have no choice but to write to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) requesting for urgent action to be taken,” he said in a statement today.

Chong said over the last few days his team received messages from a total of 1,754 families in Kuching, Stampin, Puncak Borneo, Petrajaya and Siniawan applying for essential food items to be delivered to their house because of the MCO.

Many have run out of money to buy food for their families due to the temporary closure of business and economic activities, he added.

He said the applicants have supplied their respective names, IC numbers, addresses and contact numbers to his team to be forwarded to the Welfare Department.

Chong said the applicants’ particulars were submitted to the Welfare Department in three batches namely on March 30 (238 families), March 31 (611 families) and today April 1 (905 families).

“We wish we could directly supply these food items to them but as the Minister of Defense has announced earlier, NGOs including political parties are not allowed to deliver food from door to door, thus we have no choice but to go through the Welfare Department,” he said.