SIBU, 4 FEBRUARY, 2012: Tan Sri William Mawan has backed a proposal to extend the time-frame in Sarawak to distribute the RM500 assistance to the people under the BR1M programme.

The state minister of social development said this was to ensure deserving people and especially, those in the remotest of rural areas, received it.

"The exercise has been done in quite a hectic manner. Someone, somewhere, might be overloooked...and this defeats its very purpose.

"The cash aid is a sign of a very caring and passionate government. It is very consistent with the 1Malaysia concept.

"Our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak seems to notice problems faced by the people in the country.

"While the amount might not be big to some people, the implications are very big and run into billions of ringgit, considering it is a nationwide exercise," Mawan told reporters here today.

Earlier today, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Datuk Wan Juniadi Tuanku Jaafar said the two or three-month period for the distribution should be extended in the state.

He reasoned that this was because of the state's sheer size and "uncompromising difficult terrain and insufficient logistics facilties" for the aid to be thoroughoutly distributed to all who deserved it.

- Bernama