By Ashwin Kumar
SHAH ALAM, March 30 — The Selangor government has allowed each constituency in the state to send a limited number of volunteers to deliver food and help to the vulnerable groups during the movement control order (MCO) period.
State Health, Welfare, Women Empowerment and Family Committee chairman Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud said the Selangor National Security Council had been tasked to allow 10 volunteers from each community service centres in the state to deliver aid.
She said the restriction was following the Federal government’s directive on Saturday that had barred humanitarian non-governmental organisations from delivering food and other forms of assistance directly to the poor communities.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had yesterday clarified that the instruction was made due to safety and health reasons.
“The state government have neither agreed nor disagreed with the Federal government’s announcement to centralise aid to the people through the Social Welfare Department (JKM).
“We understand the safety and health concerns, but we are also aware that JKM would not be able to fully distribute the aid due to lack of manpower and could possibly miss out some of the areas,” she said in a statement today.
Dr Siti Mariah said NGOs and volunteers can consult with the Federal ministry on ways to carry out the humanitarian aid with a secured health and safety procedure.
She said the state government have on March 23 provided guidelines to both assemblymen and volunteers on providing assistance to the public.
The guideline includes avoiding close contact with the surrounding people and as well as avoiding group gathering.
Yesterday, Ismail, who is also the Defence Minister, said he will meet with NGOs to improve the delivery of aid to the public during the Covid-19 outbreak
