PUTRAJAYA, Jan 16 ― The National Security Council (NSC) has clarified that the government allocated RM500 million in relief funds to mitigate the recent flood disaster, and not RM800 million as previously claimed by a deputy minister.

NSC secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab stressed that the RM500 million allocation was separate from the NSC’s revolving fund called the Kumpulan Wang Amanah Bantuan Bencana Negara meant for all other disasters, after Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan reportedly said Putrajaya has already spent RM800 million on victims of the recent flood.

“What's approved for the flood victims is RM500 million,” Thajudeen told Malay Mail Online in an exclusive interview at his office here recently.

National news wire Bernama reported Ahmad as saying on January 5 that the federal government, through the NSC, spent the higher amount on food, logistics and house-cleaning for the victims of the floods that inundated the east coast last month.

Thajudeen said that of the RM500 million allocation, the Cabinet has approved RM41 million for 82,000 families of flood victims who stayed at evacuation centres; each family will receive RM500.

Families of flood victims who did not go to relief centres, either because they were marooned at home or because they stayed with friends or relatives, will also get RM500 each.

Thajudeen said the cash aid for flood victims who went to relief centres could be handed out as early as next week if the NSC received an orderly recipient list from the Welfare Department in charge of registering people at the evacuation centres.

The NSC official told flood victims who did not stay at relief centres to register at the respective district offices for their RM500 cash aid. Their numbers are unconfirmed to date.

“The faster they do it, the faster I can do the payment,” said Thajudeen.

The next-of-kin of flood victims who died during the disaster will get RM5,000, making it a total allocation of RM125,000 for a death toll of 25 people to date, said the NSC official.

Thajudeen said the Cabinet will decide on what to do with the remainder of the RM500 million fund.

He added that the NSC’s post-flood relief efforts included building camps and sending excavators to clear up rubbish at areas where people lost their homes.

The floods that struck the east coast of peninsular Malaysia last month were the worst in the country in decades, displacing hundreds of thousands from their homes.