GEORGE TOWN, Dec 4 – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been urged to stop making baseless allegations that the Federal Government has not provided any allocation for the state in the 2016 Budget. Penang Federal Action Council chairman, Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Osman said there was a possibility that Lim had not scrutinised the Budget 2016 document prepared by the federal government for all members of Parliament.
“During the Budget 2016 presentation by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Oct 23, the Prime Minister neither touched nor mentioned in detail on every allocation contained in the budget. Only certain ‘touch points’ were mentioned in his speech on the presentation of the budget,” he said in a statement here Thursday.
According to Zainal Abidin, under the 11th Malaysia Plan, the federal government had allocated RM5.7 billion for the implementation of 144 projects involving 81 new projects and 63 ongoing projects on infrastructure and health facilities, education, investment opportunities, economic growth and welfare of the people in Penang.
“For the first “rolling plan” period (RP1 2016), RM768 million was allocated towards logistics facilities, RM242.50 million was allocated for the construction of new roads and links involving federal and state roads. In addition, of RM125.68 million was allocated for the construction of new schools and additional buildings including school extension projects,” he said.
Zainal Abidin, who is also Penang UMNO liaison committee chairman, said the federal government continued its funding in 2016 for the health sector which included the construction of new quarters and women’s and children’s blocks at the Penang Hospital, construction of multi-storey blocks at Seberang Jaya Hospital and health clinics in Bandar Perda.
“An allocation of RM50.3 million was provided for the construction of low and medium cost houses, among them, medium cost apartments in Butterworth and the public housing project (PPR) Kg Tok Suboh in Bukit Minyak. Apart from that, 33,943 units of low, medium cost and affordable houses will be built by federal departments/agencies in Penang such as the 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing Programme (PPA1M)” he added.
Zainal Abidin said that during the 13th general election campaign, Barisan Nasional (BN) made several pledges, among them, 9,999 units of affordable housing, free port status and LRT or Monorail transport system, if they were given the mandate to return to rule Penang but unfortunately the majority of voters in the state voted for DAP. As that was the choice of the majority in Penang, he said there is no point in Lim Guan Eng to keep on harping that BN or the Prime Minister had not fulfilled their promises to Penang.
