Recipients of fishermen’s cost of living allowance will undergo whitening process

KUALA TERENGGANU: The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrobased Industry is carrying out a ‘whitening process’ of the recipients of the cost of living allowance (ESH) for fishermen to ensure that only those qualified would benefit.

Its minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub said it involved 55,000 recipients previously throughout the nation and that priority would be given to ‘real fishermen’.

Among the conditions is that the fishermen should go to sea at least 120 days in a year.

“This whitening process is necessary because it (the aid) is supposed to be given to the real target group. There should not be any fraud. But there were those who are not fishermen but got it too,” he told a press conference after a meeting with Terengganu fishing community leaders here yesterday.

Also present were director-general of Fisheries Malaysia Datuk Munir Mohd Nawi and State Agriculture, Agro-based Industry and Rural Development Committee chairman Dr Azman Ibrahim.

According to Salahuddin, the whitening process is also important to enable data gathering process of the fishermen and to facilitate the provision of new incentives for those who are truly qualified.

Other than that, the ministry is also drafting a strategic plan to improvise the incentives for fishermen in a different form besides financial assistance that would impact and improve their living standards.

“The ministry is completing an action plan and it will be announced soon. We have also identified several locations in each state to build affordable housing schemes for fishermen,” he said.

The government has spent RM13.6 billion on the development of the nation’s fisheries sector from 2009 to 2016, including the construction of fishing ports, jetty construction, subsidised oil and diesel subsidies and ESH for fishermen. - Bernama