Sabah govt distributes food basket aid

Nizam (third left) handing over a food basket to one of the affected residents at Taman Sri Titingan PPR yesterday.

TAWAU: The Sabah government has started distributing food basket assistance to the affected residents in Tawau, Kunak, Semporna and Lahad Datu which were under the Targeted Enhanced Movement Control Order (TEMCO).

The aid was being managed by the district Disaster Operation Control Centre (PKOB).

In Tawau, 500 household heads at the Taman Sri Titingan People’s Housing Project (PPR) yesterday were among those receiving the food basket aid.

Sabah Assistant Minister of Finance Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan said the government had channelled the allocation and the PKOB committee immediately implemented the distribution of the aid.

As the Apas assemblyman, he said his side would work with the PKOB committee to distribute the assistance to target groups.

“The aid distribution by PKOB is very transparent and without favouring any party,” he said yesterday while attending a food basket aid distribution.

Nizam called on the people to work together with the government to curb the spread of Covid-19 and not to take the current situation lightly as it is very worrying.

Tawau Municipal Council (TMC) secretary Joseph Pang, representing the PKOB committee, said the aid was in the form of daily food worth RM50 per family which targeted affected residents.

Meanwhile, 1,000 food baskets for the Kalabakan parliamentary constituency had been distributed to the surrounding villages at Tanjung Batu Keramat yesterday.

The ceremony held at the residence of Hj Mostyn near Al-Mukarramah Mosque was attended by the TMC officers, Rela members and volunteers to ensure the smooth running of the program.

Tanjung Batu assemblyman Andi Muhammad Suryadi Bandy said a total of 20,000 food baskets would be handed over to all eligible households in Kalabakan covering four constituencies, namely Kukusan, Tanjung Batu, Merotai and Sebatik.

“The preparation of the food basket will be done according to the data that has been coordinated,” he said.

According to him, each representative in the appointed areas will be responsible for handing over the food basket as planned and coordinated by the officer in charge. The distribution is expected to be completed next week.

Suryady (second right) handing over the food basket to a representative of an appointed area in Tanjung Batu Keramat yesterday.

Suryady, who is also the Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports, hopes that the assistance, which will be channelled to the entire Kalabakan parliamentary constituency, will be able to help ease the burden of families affected by the TEMCO.

The distributions of the food baskets were also being carried out in Semporna, Kunak and Lahad Datu currently.

Kunak district officer, Majaran Osman said the aid would be distributed in phases with 553 food baskets already handed over to household heads in Kampung Pangkalan, here, under the first phase.

According to Majaran, 866 household heads from Kampung Bagiang and Kampung Kunak 3 would receive the food baskets also under the first phase of the distribution of the aid.

Meanwhile, Semporna district officer, Benedict Asmat said the distribution of the food baskets had been carried out since Saturday.

In Lahad Datu, the state government had started distributing food baskets to 1,150 household heads starting from October 9.

Prior to this, Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor announced that a RM10 million allocation had been ear-marked for the food basket aid to the affected residents in the Covid-19 red zones.

The post Sabah govt distributes food basket aid appeared first on Borneo Post Online.

from Borneo Post Online https://ift.tt/2GR0Tuj
via IFTTT