Rela wants more funds for those serving government offices

Rela has appealed to the government to provide adequate allocation to implement various programmes to empower the People's Volunteer Corps.

Its director-general, Kamariah Mohd Noah said this year, Rela received only RM20 million for training programmes and allowances of members who served in government departments and agencies.

"Last year, Rela received RM60 million for training and paying the allowances of members. The big cut in allocation this year has a direct impact on the members," she told reporters after presenting a keynote address at the Rela Training Academy Malaysia (Alarm) in Malacca today.

The big cut in the allocation means that only 1,265 members can be deployed in government departments and agencies this year, as compared with 4,500 last year.

Kamariah said with the reduced allocation from the government, Rela could not pay the allowances of all its members.

"However, Rela can deploy its members at departments and agencies if the latter agree to pay their allowances," she said, adding the big allocation cut also meant that Rela could not train new members and this would affect the key performance indicators of members and the department.

"Since this involves security issue, I hope the original allocation can be given back to Rela."

She said Rela also planned to ask for its original authority to be restored, including carrying weapons and detaining offenders, as a "back-up" to the police.

On July 13, Kamariah was appointed Rela director-general to replace Lukeman Saaid who retired. – Bernama