SHAH ALAM, July 4: The State Government was forced to spend RM75,000 of public funds to pay for the legal cost of the recent single mothers’ lawsuit.
According to the Selangor Executive Councillor for Welfare and Women’s Affairs, Rodziah Ismail, this matter is very disappointing when the money could have been utilised to pay for a variety of beneficial programmes, including those for single mothers.
“Would it not be better if the RM75,000 was given directly to single mothers?” said Rodziah in her winding up speech during the Selangor State Assembly session today.
Rodziah however said that the plaintiff in the single mothers’ lawsuit against the State Government has withdrawn their lawsuit after losing a court case recently.
Prior to this, a total of 3,011 single mothers in Selangor filed a suit claiming RM16.26 million in allowance arrears for the group which was allegedly promised in the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) manifesto in the 12th General Election in 2008.
However, the Putrajaya Court of Appeal in their judgement last May decided to cancel the suit.
The suit was believed to have been masterminded by specific parties with political motives to discredit the good reputation of the Selangor PR Government.
More recently, the State Government found that three of the single mothers who joined the suit did receive benefit from the programme or the State Government Welfare Schemes.
According to Rodziah, the State Government hopes that this would be the precedent case for other lawsuits faced by the State Government.