By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Nov 9: Violet Yong (DAP-Pending) claims that the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government has not fully kept its promise of giving monthly Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) cash assistance to eligible Sarawakians.
Under BKSS, those in the lower-income group or B40 are to be given monthly cash assistance of RM250 to be paid out for six months starting April 15, 2020.
“To the recipients, this is a welcome move and will at least help them in some ways but unfortunately, the state GPS government did not fully fulfill the promises made. There are many who either did not receive a sen of BKSS or only received a partial payment of one or two months.
“In addition, there is also another group that met the eligibility criteria but failed to be included in the BKSS name list. Despite their submission of appeals in April or May, no outcome has been made as of today by the state government concerning these appeals,” she said when debating the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Bill tabled by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here today.
Noting that the results of appeals are still not revealed after eight months, she questioned the reason for this stagnancy in the online system whereby the status of appeals are listed as in the verification stage.
For those who tried contacting the hotline number in seek of help, they then received answers from the hotline operators that nothing could be done as the state government had not given any instruction as to when the money will be made available for disbursement, she added.
Thus, Yong urged the state government to be sincere in offering assistance to the people and not in a half-hearted manner while eligible Sarawakians are left waiting in vain.
Adding on, she raised similar issues where assistance from the state government which has already been announced by the Chief Minister was not disbursed or was still pending, such as the BKSS assistance for hawkers and the discounts on electricity bills effective until the end of the year.
“As for BKSS to assist the hawkers, there are some appeal cases that are still pending approval from the state government.
“We (Democratic Action Party) were given to understand that all the appeals from the hawkers had been submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, but when we asked MBKS (Kuching South City Council) about the status for one of the cases, MBKS is clueless too and couldn’t provide any specific answers to it…
“In addition, when the Chief Minister announced BKSS 4.0 on Oct 23 and in today’s budget speech, he mentioned about extending the discount for electricity bills for another three months until December.
“But we have received feedback from the ground that the discounted subsidy from the state government was not reflected in Sesco’s October bills,” she said.
As such, Yong asserted the Sarawak GPS government is not well-prepared nor equipped with the necessary resources to fully implement the BKSS initiatives and benefits for the people as promised. — DayakDaily
