PUTRA HEIGHTS FIRE: VICTIM REGISTRATION TO CLOSE AT NOON TOMORROW - AMIRUDIN

SHAH ALAM, April 5 (Bernama) -- Victims of the gas pipeline fire incident in Putra Heights, Subang Jaya, who have yet to register at the temporary evacuation centre (PPS) are advised to do so before the registration closes completely at noon tomorrow.

Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said this to enable data verification to be carried out by, among others, the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM), the Social Welfare Department (JKM) and the Petaling Land and District Office.

"As of today, we have identified 509 families who have registered at the PPS with some of them not living there.

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"The increase in the number (of affected families) is expected to occur after they return home from Raya because the incident occurred during the second Raya and some of them have returned home since yesterday.

"Therefore, the state government and state disaster management advise anyone who has not registered to do so because we will close registration at noon tomorrow," he said at a press conference at the Selangor State Secretariat Building here today.

He said this was to prevent victims who had just returned from their villages after the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration and those who did not reside in PPS from being left behind in receiving the assistance that had been announced previously.

He said it was difficult to obtain actual data and information on the number of houses and victims involved for the purpose of distributing assistance because there were several premises that were used as rental houses, with up to eight doors.

In this regard, he said the government would create another new category for assistance, namely for tenants of RM2,500 in addition to owners of completely damaged houses (RM5,000) and owners of partially affected houses (RM2,500).

Previously, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced immediate assistance of RM5,000 to affected homeowners and RM2,500 to partially damaged homeowners.

At the same time, Amirudin said he had asked the relevant parties to identify the groups of victims who were left out of receiving assistance.

“We will contact them to identify the location and locality of the houses to hand over this contribution. Our contribution delivery is expected to be completed next week and thanks to Petronas, the Department of Social Welfare (JKM) and the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) who managed the houses and the assistance,” he said

Meanwhile, Amirudin said that as of yesterday, a total of 130 housing units out of 235 houses in Taman Putra Harmoni that were affected in the incident were confirmed safe and their occupants had been allowed to return to their homes.

“However, for the residents of Kampung Sungai Baru, they still have not been allowed to return because the situation is not safe as reported by the fire department, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and related departments.

“Therefore, I would like to remind the residents who have not received permission to return not to do so because there is no guarantee of safety. I will ask that security controls be tightened further,” he said.

He said that victims who want to return home to collect important documents need to obtain permission from the commander in the field and they will be accompanied by the fire department or related officers to avoid any unwanted incidents.

“I have received reports that some victims had to seek treatment at the PPS because they complained of feeling unwell after returning.

“After we checked, they have not received permission to return because their homes are located in the Kampung Sungai Baru or Kampung Kuala Sungai Baru areas which do not yet have approval (to return),” he said.

Amirudin said some of the houses in the village were in a fragile condition, making it unsafe for occupancy.

-- BERNAMA