DEBAK: Sarawak needs a more concrete system for categorising and registering the income of its population, especially when it involves e-Kasih.
Deputy Minister of Women, Children, and Community Welfare Development, Mohammad Razi Sitam, said that the existing e-Kasih system can be questioned.
In this regard, he believed that when Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, raised the issue of reviewing the e-Kasih registration, it is a wise and commendable action to take.
“I personally fully support our Premier’s suggestion to review the e-Kasih system to ensure that the eligible target groups are assisted.
“In this advanced era, the government needs a comprehensive system to determine the income categories of the people, whether they are the poor, hardcore poor, low-income group (B40), middle-income group (M40), and so on,” he said.
The Saribas assemblyman said this after attending the launching ceremony of the Kembara Merdeka Jalur Gemilang Peringkat Daerah Betong at Dewan Millenia yesterday.
Earlier, Abang Johari announced that a re-evaluation would be conducted on the list of e-Kasih recipients in Sarawak.
He mentioned that the previous list did not provide an accurate representation of the people’s situation in Sarawak, as it was evaluated solely based on the financial status of the recipients.
In a separate development, Razi admitted that several projects under the Betong Development Agency (BDDA) were dropped because they did not meet the criteria outlined by the Development Bank of Sarawak (DBOS) and the Sarawak Financial Secretary (SFS).
Nevertheless, he emphasised that these projects were redirected to other initiatives.
“At a recent BDDA meeting, we were informed about several sports facility projects that were dropped… we accept it and inform the involved assemblymen to replace them with other projects, following the guidelines set by DBOS and SFS.
“Including in my area, there was one project that got dropped but replaced with another project that focuses more on area development, particularly the economy.
“This means that in the first phase of BDDA project implementation, there are no sports facility projects,” he explained.
Despite that, Razi assured that the matter would be discussed for the next phase, and the people need not worry as the Sarawak government has various other initiatives to carry out sports-related projects.
