SIK: Felda will remain under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department until main issues faced by the agency and its settlers have been resolved.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he would personally monitor Felda's progress until the agency is handed over to another ministry.
"For now, Felda is under the PM's Department because there are a lot of problems and I do not want to resolve them in bits and pieces.
"I have given full responsibility to the new Felda chairman (Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek) as I know he has the capability and he is serious about resolving the issues.
"I have told him to push ahead and if there are problems to let me know," he said when officiating the 'Karnival Segalanya Felda' in Felda Teloi Timur here on Friday (Aug 4).
Anwar said Felda had a long history and said he hoped the Felda fraternity, especially first to third generation settlers would show strong commitment to settle the issues.
"I have been trying my best (to resolve the issues). No one can criticise this or can deny that in the past eight months we have addressed issues – on top of the RM8.3bil waiver for (Felda settlers' debts) – concerning Internet access, dialysis centres, repair of dilapidated schools and street lights, he said.
He added that if the government had solved this decades-old issue eight months they could achieve much more in five years.
At the end of June, Anwar signed an agreement to waive Felda settlers' debts totalling RM8.3bil as well as an allocation of RM7.7mil a year for the cost of operating street lights, in addition to the construction of 12 haemodialysis centres with an allocation of RM21mil in all Felda regions.
Also present at the event were Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Ahmad Shabery. – Bernama
