KUANTAN, July 3 — The Indera Mahkota constituency has used about 40 per cent of the RM3.5 million allocated to its Member of Parliament (MP) Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah to help its constituents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic between June last year until May this year.
Saifudin said the beneficiaries were the needy, taxi and express bus drivers, those involved in food delivery, fishermen and small traders severely affected by the economic downturn brought by the pandemic.
“In total, we have allocated RM950,000 specifically for COVID-19 assistance, including RM150,000 received from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry. Apart from food baskets, this allocation is used to provide 60,000 bottles of disinfectant liquid and 100,000 pieces of face masks.
“It is also used in providing transportation to ferry the target groups to vaccination centres, distributing food packs for frontline workers and vaccine recipients and in making personal protective clothing (PPE) when we faced a shortage of the supplies of PPE at the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
Saifuddin, who is also Pahang Bersatu chief said this at a press conference held in conjunction with the online presentation of the Indera Mahkota 2020 Member of Parliament Report Card here today. The report card presentation has been his annual activity since becoming the Indera Mahkota MP.
The Communications and Multimedia Minister said more food baskets would be distributed to target groups soon under the National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH) involving an allocation of RM300,000.
Saifuddin said 31 per cent of the RM3.5 million was used for operating expenses to carry out programmes and activities while the remaining 29 per cent was used for infrastructure purposes such as building bridges, carrying out repair works, deepening ditches and repairing mosques and houses damaged by floods and storms.
Meanwhile, he said an online tuition centre called the Indera Mahkota e-Tuition Centre would be launched on July 10, with the participation of 600 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination candidates from 17 schools with priority given to the B40 group.
He said the programme would be run by trained educators who would be teaching 10 subjects.
“We rented premises in Indera Mahkota 7 to be used as a studio and the number of elective subjects will be increased from time to time,” he added.
On future planning, Saifuddin said Cherating would be developed as a seaside homestay hub to revive the tourism sector badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that another popular tourist destination, Pantai Batu Hitam would be upgraded with better infrastructure such as a food court, sidewalks, public restrooms and picnic spots.
“We will better empower Persons with Disabilities (PwD) in terms of communication and employment opportunities. The Tengku Panglima Perang Tengku Muhammad Mosque in Sungai Karang will have a sign language interpreter during Friday prayers,” he added.
He said he also sought to create more opportunities for employment, education and training in Indera Mahkota by collaborating with various parties such as government agencies, the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and district education offices.
Saifuddin said, apart from that, the #IMFUTURES programme would continue to be enhanced to provide opportunities for students and youths to learn various basic skills related to robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things, among others to nurture them to be creative and innovative digital natives who would, in turn, drive future industries.
