KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government held an engagement session with state Opposition assemblymen in its effort to eradicate poverty.
This was done through Phase 2.0 of the Poverty Data Refinement Engagement Session with Sabah State Legislative Assembly members by the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) Secretariat, Chief Minister's Department at a hotel here on Thursday (Nov 28).
The engagement session was specifically held for assemblymen from non-government parties.
Parti Warisan’s Tungku assemblyman Assaffal @ Samsul Kamal P Alian and Bongawan assemblyman Dr Daud Yusof attended the engagement.
There were also representatives from the Sungai Manila, Sukau (both under Sabah Ummo) and Darau (Warisan) state constituencies.
SMJ Secretariat chief coordinator Datuk Datu Rosmadi Sulai said the session reflected the openness and commitment of the current state leadership to eradicate hardcore poverty in Sabah.
Datu Rosmadi said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has stressed that efforts to eliminate hardcore poverty should not be limited by religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation.
“The state government is committed to realising the agenda to eradicate poverty in Sabah,” he said, in a statement.
He emphasised that the engagement session was important to gather input and suggestions from everyone, particularly non-government state assembly members regarding the addition of names of household heads and household members who have been overlooked in the e-Kasih system in their respective areas.
This is so they can then be included in the Sabah State Poverty Database System (Padans)
Datu Rusmadi subsequently requested cooperation and assistance from assemblymen to identify the poor and hardcore poor in their respective constituencies.
He said the engagement session was held following the Chief Minister’s directive during the recently concluded state assembly sitting.
As part of the session, the assemblymen and their representatives were also introduced to the Padans system and the procedures for registering in the system for future intervention assistance.
