Story by Victor Seow
Pix by Shum Jian-Wei
THE payment of the one-off RM700 to the Nov 4 and 5 flood victims which started on Dec 16 brought much relief to those who applied for it under the “Penang Bangkit Programme”.
The event which took place at Komtar witnessed a total of 1,052 recipients, who reside in the Northeast district of Penang island, receiving RM700 in cash to mitigate the financial losses they suffered in the worst flood disaster in the history of the state.
“The state government is committed to alleviating the financial losses and burden shouldered by Penangites through the implementation of a series of measures under the ‘Penang Bangkit Programme’.
The whole programme comes to about RM105 million and covers large scale cleaning efforts, coordination and delivery of aid items, discounts for assessment fees and water charges, waiver of water conservation surcharge for domestic users, free replacement of lost government documents and of course, the one-off RM700 for each household affected by the flood,” the chief minister said in his speech.
Also present were State Secretary Datuk Seri Farizan Darus and the elected representatives of constituencies within the northeast district; Dr. T. Jayabalan (Batu Uban), Jagdeep Singh (Datok Keramat), Chow Kon Yeow (Padang Kota), Yap Soo Huey (Pulau Tikus), Lim Siew Khim (Sungai Pinang), Teh Lai Heng (Komtar) and Yeoh Soon Hin (Paya Terubong) as well as parliamentarians Zairil Khir Johari (Bukit Bendera), Jeff Ooi (Jelutong) and Ramkarpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor).
The chief minister after officiating the payment ceremony at Komtar also rushed to the North Seberang Perai and Central Seberang Perai Land Offices to inspect the disbursement of the RM700 aid to the applicants who live in the respective districts.
Speaking to the press later, Lim urged the federal government to make known its stand to help the flood victims.
“The federal government can announce first this year and only pay next year. We are aware that it lacks funds but don’t ignore the plight of Penangites who were severely affected by the storm. Flood victims in other states were given RM500 each. Why are Penangites being sidelined although we are all Malaysians?” he said.
There are in total 48,424 qualified and successful applicants throughout Penang for the one-off RM700 under the “Penang Bangkit Programme” which will incur a total allocation of RM33,896,800.