SHAH ALAM, July 6: The Selangor Government applied for an additional allocation of RM105 million to continue giving 20 cubic metres of free water to the people of Selangor for the period of July till December this year.
Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that the provision is necessary because the previous provisions only covered the cost of the programme till last May, before the 13th General Election (GE-13).
Therefore, he said, the State Government will pay for the cost of free water to the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas) for January till May.
The decision was made for the 2013 budget because if another State Government took over after the GE-13, the administration will not be forced to continue the policy.
“If we won the election, we will continue this free water programme. This decision was made because we do not want to make decisions for others.
“However in the PR manifesto, we have listed our effort to continue this free water assistance,” he told the media after the Selangor State Assembly (DNS) was adjourned today.
The RM105 million application was part of the application for additional expenditure of RM761 million made through an enactment in the DNS.
From the RM105 million, RM83 million is to cover the free water programme for July till December 2013.
Meanwhile, RM22 million is to support the existing programme which has been used for the programme payments for May till June.