KOTA KINABALU: Sabah expects to get RM200 million from the federal government to manage the state's natural disasters.
Sabah Assistant Finance Minister Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan said the state government has submitted a request to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob during the national disaster management committee meeting earlier this week.
The request was for RM147 million to repair the infrastructure damaged by floods and RM83 million for Covid-19 expenditures.
The immediate RM18 million presented by the prime minister recently was for Covid-19 management and other expenses.
Earlier, the state disaster management committee received RM8 million for disaster relief.
During the recent visit here, he said the prime minister had also given an assurance that more help will be given to Sabah.
"The Kota Kinabalu MP should have checked his facts first before making comments with ill intention to gain political mileage," said Nizam.
He was responding to DAP's Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin who alleged that the federal government allocated RM18 million to the state's disaster relief efforts, a far cry from the RM78 million pledged to Kedah affected by floods last month.
Chan claimed only RM2 million of the RM18 million would go towards helping flood victims in Sabah.
The amount of allocations has infuriated Sabahans, leading to netizens from the state comparing the allocations given to Sabah and Kedah on social media.