Kedah announces special payment of RM2,000 for state's civil servants

ALOR STAR: The Kedah government today announced a special payment of RM2,000 for the state's civil servants, which entails an allocation of RM14 million.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah when tabling the state's budget for 2018 in the Kedah State Assembly said the payment will be made in two tranches, RM1,000 in December and RM1,000 before Aidilfitri next year.
He said the payment was in appreciation of the contributions of the 6.000 civil servants in the state, saying they were the "heartbeat" of the administration.
Ahmad Bashah also announced that from January next year, the state government would pay in full water bills for domestic users who used 20m³ or lower a month.
The move was to encourage water conservation and increase reserve capacity at reservoirs, he said, adding that it would benefit 221,000 consumers and the cost to the state to settle the payments to Syarikat Air Darul Aman Berhad (SADA) would average about RM1.5 million a month or RM18 million a year.

The mentri besar further announced a slew of other incentives and assistance for the people among them general assistance for recipients of aid from the Welfare Department to be raised from RM150 to RM200, which involves 4,000 recipients entailing an allocation of RM2.5 million.
"As for victims of natural disasters like floods, aid will be raised from RM100 to RM200 for those who are evacuated to and registered at relief centres.
"Also under Dana Warisan Pendidikan Anak Kedah, a total of 30,000 Year One students who enter the 2018 school session will be given RM100 each in the form of a Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional (SSPN-i) account," he said.
Ahmad Bashah added that the incentive for kampung and Kelas Asas Fardu Ain (KAFA) teachers would be raised to RM600 as compared to RM450 currently. — Bernama