GEORGE TOWN, Aug 28 — Newly appointed Penang Regional Development Authority (Perda) chairman Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq will focus on pushing for more affordable housing projects and programmes to help rural residents over the next few months.
The Bertam assemblyman, who was appointed to the position in March this year, said his aim is to implement projects and programmes that benefit the people.
“We are launching an affordable housing project in November in Tasek Gelugor and another similar project in Sungai Dua in December,” he said in an interview with the Malay Mail.
The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) lawmaker said he wanted to help those in the rural areas especially those affected by Covid-19.
“We are going to organise programmes to assist small medium enterprises and entrepreneurs,” he said.
He said the Rural Development Ministry had channeled some allocations to assist SMEs and entrepreneurs so Perda will be distributing the allocation in the form of equipment or financial aid to those who needed it.
He added that there will be programmes to assist rural SMEs and entrepreneurs including boosting their morale especially during the recovery movement control order period.
When asked about the misconduct cases within Perda that his predecessor, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, had filed, Khaliq said the cases were already brought to court.
“Two cases are still ongoing in court,” he said.
However, he said he was not aware of other misconduct cases that Mohamed Haniff had alluded to last year.
He said if there are any new cases, he would look into it.
“I will not be digging up old files to search for misconduct cases as we have a lot of work to do, we need to launch projects and programmes to help the people, that is more important for now,” he said.
Perda is a government agency under the Rural Development Ministry, formed in 1983, to develop the Seberang Perai area.
