Fire victims in Kampung Pasir Lutong receive financial aid
MIRI: Sixteen people from three families of fire victims in Kampung Pasir Lutong here received financial aid from Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing, Datuk Fatimah Abdullah yesterday.
According to Fatimah, it was part of the assistance allocated to the affected families.
“Before this, the families received assistance in the form of clothing as well as daily essentials from the Welfare Department.
“Today they are receiving financial aid for pocket money, food, school essentials for their children, school uniforms, sleeping materials as well as kitchen utensils,” she said.
Fatimah told reporters this when met at Kampung Pasir Lutong to hand over the aid to the three families.
According to her, the amount given to the family is based on the assistance rate for fire victims from the Welfare Department.
“The rate has been revised. For example, before this the department gave RM70 per child for school uniform, but the new rate is RM200.
“For building materials, the allocation before this was RM2,500 per family, but now it is RM5,000. However, this only applies if the house gutted by fire belongs to the victims and is built on land owned by the victims, not squatters,” she explained.
The fire victims Merio Luisak, Nasa Chagat and Roselind Jabu as well as their family members were left homeless after a fire which broke out on Jan 22 destroyed their houses in a squatter area in Kampung Pasir Lutong here.
Their houses were among the five houses destroyed by the 10.45pm fire - two of them abandoned houses. Their losses were estimated at RM100,000.
Fatimah visited the fire site yesterday to hand over financial aid totalling RM4,450 to Merio, RM3,600 to Nasa and RM2,350 to Roselind.
She advised the victims to apply for resettlement lots through the Land and Survey Department.
“The families are putting up with their relatives. I advised them to apply for resettlement lots through the Land and Survey Department.
“Once they have a lot, they can apply for PPRT ( housing project for the hardcore poor) scheme,” she said, adding that she would provide the recommendation letters to support their application.