16,000 fishermen qualify for cost of living allowance: LKIM

PUTATAN: About 16,000 fishermen in Sabah are eligible to receive a monthly allowance from the government worth RM300 through the Cost of Living Allowance programme.
State Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) director Mohd Jamil Abdullah said the programme involved a monthly allocation of about RM5 million.
"The allowance is among the government's efforts to address the increase in the cost of living. We hope that it will help ease the burden of fishermen to buy daily essentials and support the school expenses of their children," he told reporters after attending the state-level launching ceremony of the Agro-based Industry Carnival here today.
The three-day carnival organised by LKIM was officiated by Sabah Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry Deputy Permanent Secretary, K. Zulkifli Harrith, who represented Sabah deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yahya Hussin.
Mohd Jamil said the allowances were given directly to the fishermen and not through a payee account anymore.
Commenting on the repair of fishermen's houses programme, he said Sabah was the biggest recipient of allocations for the programme, compared to Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.
Mohd Jamil said from 2016, the LKIM had received an allocation of RM11.3 million to repair houses of fishermen in the state which involved 986 houses.
"In 2016, a total of 531 houses were repaired, incurring a cost of RM6,372,000, with RM12,000 allocated for each house. Meanwhile, in 2017, a total of 455 dilapidated houses will be repaired, involving a cost of RM5,583,000, with an allocation of between RM12,000 and RM15,000 for each house," he said, adding that work for repairs would commence at the end of the year on a "gotong-royong" basis. — Bernama