The Kelantan government needs to collaborate with the federal government to increase the income of the people in the state, which has been deemed the lowest compared to other states.

Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub said the state government should be responsible to increase the people's income and not put the blame on the federal government when they failed to do so.

"It is difficult for the federal government to develop Kelantan without full cooperation from the state government," he told reporters after opening the Machang UMNO delegates' meeting here today.

Ahmad Jazlan said this in response to Khazanah Research Institute's report released last Monday, which stated that 84.8 per cent of households in Kelantan earned lower than RM6,000 monthly, which is the average monthly household income in Malaysia, hence making the people in the state to have the lowest income as compared to other states.

Ahmad Jazlan said the PAS-led state government could not deny the fact that many development projects which had been and were being implemented in the state were contributed by the federal governmentdespite the various therestrictions in the land acquisition process.

He said those development projects had also created many job and business opportunities for the people.