Kelantan MB cries foul over allocation distribution
KOTA BARU: Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah criticised the Rural Development Ministry for proposing grants of up to RM100mil only for states under Pakatan Harapan.
He said the move would be no different from the discriminatory policy practised by the previous Barisan Nasional government against Opposition-ruled states.
“Allocations should be fairly distributed in the interest of the rakyat. Otherwise Pakatan Harapan is no different from Barisan,” he said here yesterday.
He was responding to Rural Development Minister Rina Harun’s announcement that grants amounting to RM100mil would be allocated for the wellbeing of villages in Pakatan states.
State Agriculture, Agro-based Industry, Biotechnology, Green Technology and Environment committee chairman Tuan Saripudin Tuan Ismail said Pakatan should not “emulate” what he claimed as Barisan’s politics of revenge to block development in Opposition-ruled states.
“Even farmers who support PAS have been denied fertiliser subsidy since the 1990s,” he said.
Mohd Amar and Tuan Saripudin were met after the swearing-in ceremony of the new Kelantan state assemblymen at Kompleks Darul Naim.
The state legislative assembly saw the reappointment of Datuk Abdullah Ya’kub as Speaker.
Former state exco member Datuk Abdul Fattah Mahmood was appointed as the new Deputy Speaker, replacing Mengkebang assemblyman Abdul Latif Abdul Rahman.
Barisan Nasional’s Kok Lanas assemblyman Datuk Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad was appointed the new Opposition Leader.
Former Opposition leader Datuk Nozula Mat Diah was not nominated to defend his Paloh state seat in GE14.
PAS managed to win 37 seats from 32 previously, but Barisan-held seats went down from 12 to eight seats. Pakatan parties failed to win a seat in Kelantan.
At the same event, Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob proposed Asmak Hussin, 40, as senator, replacing Khairiah Mohamed, whose term ends tomorrow.