JKM 90 pct ready to face Northeast Monsoon season - Rina

SUNGAI BULOH: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry (KPWKM) through the Social Welfare Department (JKM) is 90 per cent ready to face the Northeast Monsoon season, said Minister Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun

She said simulation exercises on relief centre management are on-going and due to complete by next month to ensure a more organised and systematic management of evacuation in all states.

"In terms of preparation and volunteers, we have a list of volunteers but we still need more to participate.

"For the registered volunteers, we will give a briefing and they will be given specific tasks at the relief centres, helping the flood victims and so forth," she said after visiting the Disaster Relief Storage Depot at Penyayang BAKTI Complex in Sungai Buloh here today.

She said there are eight such depots which act as disaster relief facility centres for the storage of basic necessities and emergency food supplies and they are located in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Kedah, Selangor, Johor, Sarawak and Sabah.

She said JKM also provides 140 state or district stores as preparation and has identified 6,010 relief centres nationwide for this year, compared to 5,731 in 2021.

On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob informed that JKM is ready to activate 6,010 relief centres nationwide to accommodate 1,620,855 victims.

Rina said the government has allocated RM9.16 million to deal with flood disasters this year compared to RM7.3 million in 2021 which was an increase of RM1.82 million.

When asked about the viral video involving an actor to promote the Wanita Bangkit @ KPWKM programme, she said certain parties need to stop politicising everything and instead examine the content of the programme and its benefits to the public.

-- BERNAMA