Noh Omar wants to reach out to urban folk

PUTRAJAYA: Eradicating urban poverty and improving the lifestyle of the people are in the priority list for newly appointed Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar (pic).

With only two years to go before the next general election, Noh said he needed to list down his plans and prioritise.

"There are a lot of things that need to be implemented, so I need to have a priority list. The area that I planned to focus most on is solving the urban poverty problem which is worse than rural areas.

"There are existing programmes by the Ministry to rid of urban poverty but I want to get the details and work on certain aspects of these programmes to further improve it," he said at his office here recently.

Noh explained that there appeared to be discrepancies when it came to benefits being given to the urban and rural communities.

He cited the example that urban areas enjoy government allocations that are given to rural areas, but not vice versa. 

Noh also said that while the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BRIM 2016) is extended to the urban and rural communities, fishermen in rural areas get subsidy of RM350 but not city folk.