KUANTAN: The Pahang government plans to introduce an initiative to plant a tree for each baby born, with several suitable locations in each district to be selected as planting areas.

State Unity, Community Welfare, Women and Family Development Committee chairman, Datuk Seri Shahaniza Shamsuddin, said that her office would work with the Pahang Forestry Department to implement the initiative, expected to be launched after Aidilfitri.

"We plan to launch it in Pantai Serandu, Pekan. The Forestry Department will also identify suitable trees to be planted in each location.

"The trees will be tagged with the names of the babies to symbolise their birth. We hope the location of this tree planting will be the focus of tourism in the future," she said.

She said this at the Pahang State Assembly sitting at Wisma Sri Pahang here today, in her reply to a question from Datin Samsiah Arshad (BN-Bukit Ibam), who wanted to know the number of Pahang Pride Kid applications.

Replying to Samsiah's original question, she said that only 1,600 of the more than 3,000 applications were eligible to receive a grant of RM200 each thus far, of which RM100 was in the form of savings while another RM100 was for baby and mother care items.

Answering a supplementary question from Datuk Khairuddin Mahmud (BN-Pulau Manis), who wanted to know the reason for the application being rejected, she said that it was because mothers who were originally from Pahang had given birth outside the state.

Meanwhile, state Science, Technology, Innovation, Communication and Multimedia Committee chairman, Datuk Mohammad Fakhruddin Mohd Ariff, said that the state government had no plans to abolish the RM1 service charge for water bill payment through the Pahang Go application.

He said this in his reply to a question from Leong Yu Man (PH-Triang), who wanted to know the government's plan to abolish the water bill payment service charge of Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad (PAIP) through the Pahang Go application.

-- BERNAMA