Sunday February 17, 2013

Clever use of SMS prevents chaos during handover of BR1M 2.0 vouchers

By STEPHEN THEN
stephenthen@thestar.com.my

MIRI: Piasau SUPP has devised a clever way to facilitate the distribution of Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M 2.0) here to prevent hitches and chaos as had happened in Sibu and Kuching.

SUPP information chief, Datuk Sebastian Ting, who is also Piasau SUPP chairman, told The Star yesterday that they used SMS to ensure that there were no massive crowds or mad rush at the distribution centres.

“The 50,000 or so recipients are divided into batches, then we use GPS to get messages to their handphones,” he explained.

“The messages tell them to collect their vouchers at specific dates and times at Dewan Suarah Miri so that they don’t have to go to the centres to check for themselves.”

He said they already had the mobile phone numbers of most of the recipients who gave them the data when they registered for the aid.

Ting, who is the political secretary to Miri MP Datuk Seri Peter Chin, said that over the past two weeks, more than 26,000 people here had already collected their vouchers without any crowd trouble.

When asked about who paid for the SMS, he said that Piasau SUPP footed the bill as part of their service to the rakyat.

“I thank the people of Miri for their cooperation and patience and for not rushing to collect their vouchers,” he said.

Ting said SUPP here had also created a website for recipients who were Internet-savvy to check their BR1M status, adding that due to the orderly manner in which things had been done, at least 3,000 recipients could be attended to every day.

News

Sunday February 17, 2013

Clever use of SMS prevents chaos during handover of BR1M 2.0 vouchers

By STEPHEN THEN stephenthen@thestar.com.my

By STEPHEN THEN
stephenthen@thestar.com.my