Almost RM170 million in BWI aid distributed to disaster victims — Nancy
KUALA LUMPUR: Almost RM170 million in compassionate aid (BWI) has been distributed to 168,959 heads of households (KIR) affected by the 2022/2023 Northeast Monsoon (MTL) season, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said that RM560,000 BWI death assistance was also distributed to 56 next of kin of disaster victims.
As for the 2023/2024 MTL season, she said it had not yet ended, but the federal government through the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) had channelled the initial allocation of disaster aid to all states, amounting to RM232 million, to speed up the distribution process of BWI to affected KIR who met eligibility requirements set.
“This is not a form of compensation for the losses suffered by disaster victims, but it is more a sign of the federal government’s concern to ease the burden of disaster victims,” she said.
She was replying to a question from Datuk Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PN-Rantau Panjang) regarding the aid policy for flood victims, as well as the amount of compensation including compassionate assistance, during the question-and-answer session.
Nancy said in addition to the federal government’s assistance, the state governments could identify other assistance to contribute through state-level agencies such as ‘zakat’ (tithe) boards and corporate bodies to help ease the burden of disaster victims.
In addition, she said to strengthen the preparedness level to deal with the impact of hot and dry weather during the monsoon transition, which could continue until the end of March, the government had agreed to carry out the cloud seeding operations to ensure sufficient water resources in the water catchment areas throughout the period.