By Shamz Johan
PETALING JAYA, Feb 23 — Over 3,800 elderly residents of the Bandar Utama state constituency were given Jom Shopping vouchers under the Skim Mesra Usia Emas (SMUE) initiative, as of yesterday.
Its coordinating officer Hanis Mohamad said they have received over 2,000 new applications for SMUE, of which 3,800 vouchers have since been claimed.
“The Jom Shopping vouchers worth RM150 each have been handed over, out of a total of 8,000 SMUE recipients so far this February.
“We have utilised all available channels and resources in assisting the residents, like the Bantuan Kehidupan Sejahtera Selangor (Bingkas) aid, SMUE, as well as the Insan general insurance scheme,” she said.
Hanis added the state constituency is actively promoting state government schemes and initiatives, especially for the B40 low-income group.
“We also keep in touch with schools in the area, to identify students from low-income families so we can coordinate the appropriate types of schemes and forms of assistance,” she said.
Earlier yesterday, there was high demand from residents during the Jualan Ehsan Rakyat (JER) affordable basic necessities sales programme, at Padang PKNS in Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara.
Hanis said Bandar Baru will look to organise similar programmes in the future.
“We had more than 500 residents attend today. As such, we aim to organise it again, focusing on the area with the most B40 residents,” she said.