Govt To Continue Channelling Aid Directly To Flood Victims

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There had been calls urging the government to provide assistance to flood victims through elected representatives. (Bernama pic)
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will continue providing assistance directly to flood victims through relevant agencies rather than via elected representatives, said deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Zahid, who is also the chairman of the national disaster management committee, said assistance had been provided equally by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister’s Department and other agencies.
“God willing, their presence (flood relief agencies) at the flooded areas, especially at the temporary relief centres (PPS), has sufficiently eased the anger (of flood victims) when they saw that no elected representatives had come down to the ground,” he told Bernama after being interviewed on Bernama TV’s Ruang Bicara programme tonight.
“We ask state assemblymen and members of Parliament to come down to help them… because they must care for their respective voters.”
Zahid added that the government provides assistance to flood victims regardless of which constituency they are from.
At a press conference in Parliament today, Arau MP Shahidan Kassim urged the government to consider an immediate allocation of RM1 million to opposition MPs whose areas were affected by the floods to be channelled to the victims involved.
Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal also requested that the government allow financial assistance to be channelled directly to elected representatives in flood-affected areas to avoid delays in giving assistance to the victims. - FMT

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