KPKT to help former national athletes own a house

Its Minister, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin, said that 80 per cent of the total applications did not have any problems being approved, but the remaining 20 per cent, namely applications around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (KL), faced difficulties due to location factors.

“Just as we (KPKT) give opportunities to veteran artistes to own a house, so will we give the opportunity to former national athletes too. Insya-Allah we can fulfil it.

“In areas such as in Johor, Sabah and Sarawak, we can solve it. Hence, we can fulfil about 80 per cent of the applications. Only in Selangor and KL that may take time as we need to monitor new developments and so on,” she said.

She said this at a press conference on the presentation of contributions to former national athletes and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in collaboration with PR1MA Malaysia Corporation (PR1MA) and the National Athletes’ Welfare Foundation (YAKEB).

Previously, a total of 25 veteran arts practitioners received offer letters to rent PPR units under the Seni Prihatin Community Housing Initiative undertaken by the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) and KPKT, with 19 offered units at PPR Sri Aman Kuala Lumpur, and six recipients at PPR Lembah Subang 2.

YAKEB chairman, Datuk Noorul Ariffin Abdul Majeed, did not rule out the possibility that more former national athletes will apply to own their first home after this.

However, he said that his team would conduct a screening first before forwarding the proposal to KPKT.

“The conditions are that they do not have a house and that they must be from the B40 group,” he said.

Earlier, Zuraida also announced that KPKT, through PR1MA, has agreed to donate 300 wheelchairs for the use of former athletes who are members of YAKEB.