KENINGAU: Keningau Parti Warisan Sabah Division Chief, Rasinin Kautis urged the government to create a financial assistance system for flood victims in Sabah.
Referring to the Sabah State Legislative Assembly meeting last week, he said they discussed the issue on the Federal Government’s Bantuan Wang Ihsan (BWI) of RM1,000 to flood victims in the state.
“According to the Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan, this BWI is subject to Directive 1 of the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) where only flood victims who were moved to the Temporary Evacuation Center (PPS) are eligible for the assistance.
“I understand that the State Government also provides assistance to flood victims who were not moved to the PPS but the assistance is channeled in the form of food supplies channeled through the Community Welfare Department (JKM),” he said in his statement here.
Rasinin, who is also a former Liawan State Assemblyman, believes that if the State’s financial position is strong as often claimed by Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) leaders, then the State Government actually has no problem in establishing a financial assistance system for Sabah flood victims as a whole.
“We have been told that the State Government will record an income of RM7 billion this year, so there is no problem if the GRS Government provides assistance of at least RM1,000 once a year for Sabah flood victims who are not moved to PPS but have suffered damage to property such as electrical appliances and daily clothes to the workplace.
“The State Government also needs to be responsible for the management of the drainage system, river irrigation and large-scale hill cleaning activities which contribute to the frequency of flood episodes in the state, especially when Sabah is now being hit by global climate change which has caused the amount of rain to fall higher and more frequently,” he said.
He also received a lot of feedback from residents in the Keningau parliamentary housing area who blamed clogged and unmaintained drains as the main cause of the recent floods in Keningau.
Rasinin asked the state government to disclose to Keningau residents, especially those living in residential areas, the names of the companies that were given contracts to maintain the drains in their respective areas.
“I fully support the suggestion made by Warisan Deputy President, Darell Leiking who has requested that the State Government disclose the names of the companies that were given contracts to maintain the drains in the Putatan, Penampang, Kota Kinabalu and Sepangar districts,” he said.
At the same time, Rasinin said it was very sad when GRS leaders were satisfied with the flood assistance from the Federal Government of only RM14 million.
Compared to Kelantan and Terengganu, he said, the Federal Government had provided flood assistance of RM50 million to both states with RM25 million each and another additional assistance of RM50 million to these two states (also RM25 million each) in December last year.
“Since that Sabah is the main contributor to Petronas’ ability to pay dividends of up to RM50 billion a year to the Federal government, the State Government also needs to be firm and courageous in providing financial assistance from the Federal government to repair infrastructure damaged by natural disasters,” he said.
