Monday June 21, 2010

MBPJ reaches out to poor
By YIP YOKE TENG

THE Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has embarked on a pro-active campaign to go door to door to provide aid for the poor and the disabled.

With only 150 disabled people and 450 poor families registered, the council feels that its activities and facilities have not reached the target groups as desired.

As such, a programme was launched on Saturday at the Taman Dato Harun market in PJS2, Petaling Jaya, to reach out to the disabled, poor and senior citizens in the city.

Taman Medan assemblyman Haniza Mohd Talha, MBPJ planning department director Sharipah Marhaini Syed Ali, councillors Anthony Thanasayan, Halimey Abu Bakar and Prof Madya Melasutra Md Dali were present at the event.

The launch also highlighted the facilities the council had been providing for the poor, among them are:
Thoughtful service: Haniza (middle), Sharipah (right) and Anthony unveiling the van used to transport disabled persons around the city.

·Two community buses plying PJU and PJS;

·Two vans equipped with hydraulic lift to transport the disabled around the city;

·One mobile clinic that now travels to PPR Kota Damansara and Taman Sri Manja, but will expand its service to Impian Baiduri; and

·Various financial aid for poor families with schooling children and ill members.

Counters were set up at the site to register disabled people and poor families.

“Today we are launching a programme to look for the disabled, poor families and senior citizens, instead of waiting for them to come to us for help.

“MBPJ is the first local council in the country to take the initiative,” Haniza said.

“We target to have another 100 families registered with us by the end of the year and we will send a team to visit them one by one so that we can help them according to their needs.

“We hope they will realise that the council does care for them and respect their right to live a quality life like others in this city. With this campaign we can create an even more harmonious society,” she added.

The team that will visit the poor families comprises Thanasayan and officers from the planning department and Haniza’s service centre. They will also make trips to Lembah Subang, PJS 1 to PJS 6 and Kota Damansara.

Sharipah said even though the council had been providing various facilities for the target groups, the response had not been as good.

“We will look at all their needs including home environment and may even offer to turn their washrooms into disabled-friendly ones,” she said, adding that the council had set aside RM30,000 to provide the service and would also request developers to contri­bute to the cause dollar-to-dollar.

Thanasayan hoped that other local councils and state governments would emulate MBPJ’s proactive efforts in reaching out to the target groups.