30,000 flood victims yet to receive aid from state government

SHAH ALAM - The Selangor Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Coalition has submitted a memorandum to Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari demanding the state government to immediately distribute the Bantuan Selangor Bangkit (BSB) aid to flood victims in Selangor.

The coalition’s chairman Datuk Nazilah Idris said the memorandum was submitted since 30,000 flood victims out of about 60,000 of them have yet to receive the assistance since the devastating flood which hit the country, over a month ago.

The memorandum, Nazilah said was to call on the state government to take full responsibility for calling off the Canal City project in 2011 after claiming that it has no benefits to the people.

“However, 10 years after that on Dec 18, 2021, massive floods took place and had claimed many lives and destroyed their properties.

“People were grief-stricken over the state’s decision canceling the flood mitigation project saying that it will not be benefiting the people in Selangor,” she said after submitting the memorandum to the Menteri Besar’s private secretary Mohd Izzat Latif at the Menteri Besar’s Office and the State Secretariat (SUK) building, here, on Thursday.

Nazilah said the coalition will be the voice of the people so that the state government would take the matter more seriously.

She also suggested for dialogue sessions to be held between the NGO and the state government.

“If a dialogue session is held, we will address more issues in the state,” she said when met by reporters.

On Wednesday, Amirudin informed that Klang and Petaling were reported to have the highest number of flood victims who have yet to receive the BSB aid compared to other regions.

He added that the delay in providing assistance was also due to the overwhelming number of applicants.

As of Wednesday, more than RM100 million has been spent by the state government for the BSB contributions which involved over 100,000 applications.