S'gor govt aiming to eradicate hardcore poverty by July - MB

HULU SELANGOR: The Selangor government aims to eradicate hardcore poverty in the state by July, says Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari.

He said this was based on the briefing from the Selangor Development Action Council which recorded a total of 861 families still in the hardcore poor category.

He said the State Economic Planning Unit (UPEN) had been instructed to disburse the surplus funds from the Selangor Prosperous Living Assistance (Bingkas), involving a monthly assistance of RM300 to the affected groups.

"There are some of them who only need an additional RM17 per month to get out of the poverty group.

"So I believe that providing the RM300 assistance combined with zakat, because (among the list of hardcore poor), we have over 500 Malay community members and the rest are non-Malays that we will address," he said when met at the Batang Kali youth Raya celebration here last night

In another development, commenting on the issue of Perlis Menteri Besar Mohd Shukri Ramli being summoned to provide his statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today to assist in the investigation into allegations of abuse of power, Amirudin hoped that it would not become a campaign issue in the Kuala Kubu Baharu (KKB) by-election currently underway.

"Let the MACC carry out its duties... we (Pakatan Harapan) don't want to gain political mileage from our opponents' misfortunes.

"What PH wants to highlight is our achievements, particularly the contributions of the late Lee Kee Hiong (the incumbent KKB assemblyman) and the plans of Pang Sock Tao, alongside our strong support for state welfare and development programmes," said the PKR vice president.

The KKB by-election, which sees a four-cornered contest involving Pang (Pakatan Harapan), Khairul Azhari Saut (Perikatan Nasional), Hafizah Zainuddin (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) and Nyau Ke Xin (Independent), is being held following the death of Lee, 58, on March 21 due to cancer.

The Election Commission has set polling for May 11, while early voting takes place on May 7.

-- BERNAMA

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