KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — New Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran has instructed the Industrial Court to solve a backlog of over 2,000 cases in a month, a tone intended to sound Pakatan Harapan's firm intent on delivering its election pledge.

"They first said three months but I said I give you one month," the DAP Ipoh Barat told reporters after making his maiden visit to the Industrial Courts building at Wisma Perkeso here.

"We cannot take so long because this matter involves workers…people's bellies," he added.

As of April this year only 912 cases from the 3,687 cases filed at the court have been concluded. There are 2,775 pending cases still.

The ministry has devised mechanisms to expedite some of the cases, the ministry said in a statement prepared for the media.

Among them were the setting up of 10 Task Force Courts to hear and dispose of cases filed last year and before and the expediting of cases referred to by the minister.

The four-party coalition made reform and good governance a key election campaign issue in the lead up to the May 9 polls, which it eventually won in a stunning upset that ended Barisan Nasional's six-decade rule.

Yesterday Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the closure and streamlining of several departments deemed redundant.

The move is expected to save the government RM200 million.