By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Mar 28: The state government’s initiative in setting up the special committee in food aid during the extended period of movement control order (MCO) is timely to provide the poor and the low income group with basic food supply.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the state government was well aware of the hardship faced by the poor, low income and disabled people during the extended MCO period.
“We know that with the extended MCO, the poor, the daily paid feel the pinch the hardest, have cash flow problems and difficulty of providing food for their families while waiting for the disbursement of B40 monetary assistance from government end of April and in May.
“We are mobilising the Divisional State Disaster Management Committee.
“The membership is made up of resident, district office (DO), elected representatives, elected representatives service centre, Village Neighbourhood Committee, Community Head Committee, Health Department, the Royal Malaysian Police Force, Fire and Rescue Department, Malaysian Civil Defence Force (JPAM) and local council.
“Hopefully, the state government’s food aid will be able to help the low income, no income group by providing basic dry ration such as rice, sugar, cooking oil, tea/ coffee, biscuits, noodles to the needy families in each constituency as soon as possible,” Fatimah who is state special committee on food aid deputy chairman said in a statement.
She revealed the food aid committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan had a meeting yesterday.
Following the meeting, she shared that the food aid committee had outlined a few agendas.
Those include instructing the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to ensure enough supply of basic food, the objective for purchase distribution, the logistics for delivery, target group involved and the budget needed.
Fatimah noted those agenda will be carried out with the cooperation from the State Disaster Management Committee.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg announced the setting up of food supply chain sub-committee to ensure food security across the state will not be affected by the extended MCO.
He said the committee would monitor food sufficiency and make sure there was no interruption in the supply chain.—DayakDaily
