Minister Tito's Message To Bekasi: Maximize Social Assistance For Affected People

Home Minister Tito Karnavian/ Antara

JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian asked the Bekasi Regency Government to optimize the social assistance budget for residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the extended PPKM period.

"Regional heads must take steps to deal with the Corona pandemic. Such as implementing PPKM properly, including maximizing the distribution of social assistance for affected residents," Tito said while visiting the Bekasi Regency Government, Friday.

Tito said that the distribution of social assistance could be carried out by regional heads by involving the cooperation of the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda) so that it could be maximized.

The distribution, he said, must also be carried out quickly and on target by first carrying out a thorough identification process of the beneficiaries of the assistance program in question.

"I have conveyed the correct identification of people who are really experiencing difficulties because it could be with a new situation that the old data will increase or become invalid. What is important is that the current data, Mr. Regent, is based on input data from the Head of Police, Dandim. really affected," he said.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs' records, there are social assistance budgets and Unexpected Costs (BTT) that are not realized or the realization is low so that they are not distributed optimally to the community.

"I ask the regional head to come down directly with Forkopimda to give the perception that the government is present in the current pandemic situation," he said.

Acting Bekasi Regent Dani Ramdan said he would immediately go down to check on residents who had not received the social assistance in question in addition to other efforts to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Tomorrow I will immediately go down with the Chief of Police and Pak Dandim because the information is that there are affected people who have not received assistance. We make sure that all affected residents immediately receive this aid allocation," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Bekasi Regency Social Service, Endin Wahyudin, said that the distribution of social assistance in the form of basic food packages was based on requests from local villages and sub-districts for residents who were positive for the corona virus. A total of 7,738 food packages have been distributed to 23 sub-districts since early 2021.

"Well then we proposed the second stage of Rp. 1.8 billion this year. Alhamdulillah, it has been approved and is being spent at Bulog," he said.

In this second stage, his party has prepared 6,700 basic food packages worth Rp. 270 thousand containing rice, sardines, cooking oil, instant noodles, and sugar which will be distributed by villages and sub-districts, sub-districts, and the Social Service.

He asked each village to play an active role in monitoring residents who were isoman at home to then apply for assistance because the distribution was based on the village's proposal after a resident was exposed to the corona.

"Yes, for needs, we don't know how many more are positive. If we talk about being covered or not, the request is here, God willing, but we don't know what we don't ask for," he said.