Floods: Govt to channel RM5,000 to next-of kin of deceased victims

SHAH ALAM: The government will provide RM5,000 in death management assistance to the next-of-kin of victims who died due to the floods through the Bantuan Wang Ihsan (BWI) benevolent fund to ease the burden of those affected by the disaster, says National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) director-general Datuk Aminuddin Hassim (pic).

He said among the requirements to be eligible for the aid were Malaysian citizenship, and the victims must have been affected by the flood disaster besides having registered themselves under the name of the head of household.

Aminuddin added that valid registration must be done with the Social Welfare Department for victims evacuated to temporary relief centres.

"Those who are not evacuated to a relief centre need to register either with the Development and Security Committee (JPKK) or Community Management Council (MPKK) or community heads or village heads or penghulu in their respective places," he said during the ‘Ops Banjir’ press conference in Taman Sri Muda here, today.

To further facilitate the victims, he said Nadma and the Finance Ministry had taken measures such as using the registration done at the relief centre as proof to directly process the application.

Apart from that, he said the BWI initiative also involved RM1,000 assistance to victims and would be immediately allocated to the State Government as the State Disaster Management Committee (JPBN) under Phase One, to speed up the process of distributing aid to affected victims.

"We will speed up the distribution of funds, even though the complete information has not been received yet, the state will give provide an estimation of 3,000 to 4,000 (victims), and from there, we will channel the appropriate allocation," said Aminuddin.

"If there is a surplus (of funds) it will be used for future programmes, if it’s less, we will add on later What’s important is the verification and payment to recipients are done at the district level, no longer at the state and federal level," he added.

In the meantime, he said based on reports from the Meteorological Department, there were early signs of a monsoon which is expected to begin on Dec 27, potentially causing continuous rain in the western part of Sarawak and eastern Sabah.

"With this shared data, I would like to request the responders to organise their respective teams so that we can control the flood incident properly. Any information can be directly channelled to Nadma, and we will ensure that coordination can be done from the National Disaster Command Centre (NDCC)," he said.

On the situation in Taman Sri Muda, he said the floodwater in the area had dried up, and post-flood work had begun, which would be coordinated by the Shah Alam City Council and supported by the Social Welfare Department. - Bernama