By Nasuha Badrul Huzaini
SHAH ALAM, Feb 3 — The Selangor government has channelled payment totalling RM55.555 million under the Bantuan Selangor Bangkit (BSB) initiative to 55,425 flood-affected families in the state as of yesterday.
Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said over 104,000 applications were submitted by those affected by the floods in nine Selangor districts, with over 50 per cent of the applications completed.
In response to the delay in disbursing the aid in Klang and Petaling, Amirudin said that the state administration is expediting the process and will increase the payments from an average of 1,000 recipients a day to 2,000 or 3,000 applicants by next week.
“Due to the high volume of applications in Klang and Petaling, there is a slight delay in distributing the cash aid. I am sorry for the delay, but the aid application keeps increasing, and the state government has to do a thorough vetting process to avoid redundancies.
“In Klang alone, we have received over 77,000 applications, and 30,000 of the total have yet to be processed. Meanwhile, we estimate around 10,000 to 12,000 applications in Petaling are still in the vetting process.
“We hope to conclude the distribution of the cash aid in Petaling by the end of next week and by February 28 for the recipients in Klang.
“For a start, 3,800 applicants in Klang will receive the aid tomorrow,” he said during a special press conference on the latest update of the flood-related issues at the Selangor State Secretariat building, which was broadcasted live on Media Selangor’s Facebook today.
The BSB programme was launched on December 21 last year with a total allocation of RM100 million following the severe floods that affected eight districts in the state.
Meanwhile, Amirudin said that the Back To School initiative will commence in the third week of February and would benefit about 40,000 students.
“The assistance would be in the form of school uniforms worth RM100 each. The recipients include primary and secondary school students and those from religious schools under the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais).
“On top of that, the state government would also channel some RM1.8 million to five religious schools which were affected during the flood,” said Amirudin.
The schools involved are Sekolah Agama Taman Tun Perak (Hulu Langat), Kafa Integrasi As-Sufla (Petaling), Sekolah Agama Al Hidayah in Taman Tun Teja (Gombak), Sekolah Rendah Agama (SRA) Assiddiqin in Bandar Tasik Puteri (Rawang) and SRA Merbau Sempak (Petaling).
