KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 ― Gombak Setia assemblyman Muhammad Hilman Idham today said that there has been a significant decrease in the number of Selangor citizen benefitting from the Inisiatif Peduli Rakyat (IPR) programme that has been around for more than 10 years in the state.

The former PKR lawmaker said in his Selangor Budget 2021 speech that since the state government implemented the economic clusterisation agenda to restructure the IPR programme, it is unclear how many people have actually benefited from it.

“There are many programmes that appear to be just for the sake of branding, for example we have the Smart Selangor Mother’s Love (KISS) scheme, then we have the Food Bank programme and Children Food Bank programme but after the clusterisation of all these initiatives — who have benefitted from them?” he asked.

Muhammad Hilman said before the clusterisation, more than 40,000 mothers in Selangor benefited from the KISS Program, however after the clusterisation, only less than 25,000 mothers in Selangor received these benefits.

“Given the situation for us assemblymen from both Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, we have doubts on what is the real objective of the implementation of this clusterization? The goal to restructure the programme was so that more people can benefit or merely to reduce the number of recipients to save cost,” he questioned.

Muhammad Hilman gave another example where the KISS programme before the clusterisation had benefitted 400,000 families in Selangor but only 85,000 families were included in the state government’s initiative after.

Muhammad Hilman, who is one of Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali’s trusted aides, claimed Selangor residents were not confident in the state government’s ability to resolve the current economic crisis brought upon by the Covid-19 pandemic as the budget strategies have failed to address all the issues.

“I can’t understand why the state government that had expressed concern over the economic crisis has only put a strategic economic recovery as a last resort; this reflects