RM1,000 For Felda Folks To Participate In Homestay Programme

HULU SELANGOR, April 18 (Bernama) -- An allocation of RM1,000 will be provided to Felda settlers who want to be 'homestay' operators to upgrade their toilets to participate in the rural tourism programme. The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) chairman, Tan Sri Dr Mohd Yusof Noor, said the aid will be chanelled via an entrepreneur incentive scheme under the Felda Entrepreneurship Fund with an overall allocation of RM100 million. "The Homestay is a Felda initiative to provide additional income to settlers who now earn RM1,500 a month from oil palm planting," he said when met after the launch of the Homestay e-marketing promotion at Felda Sungai Tengi here Sunday evening. Yusof said there were 130 homestay facilities under the Felda umbrella, of which 30 were in Sungai Tengi. Asked about the allegation by the PKR-DAP-Pas coalition that RM1,500 was not in line with Felda's earnings besides allegations that the authority denied settlers rights, Yusof said the allegation had no basis.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan, said RM36.9 million was being spent by Felda to rehabilitate oil palm plantations that had been neglected over the last five years. He said the amount included the cost-of-living of settlers from Felda Soeharto, Gedangsa, Sungai Tengi and Sungai Tengi Selatan who left the land scheme in 1995. "For ten years they were separated, their plantations were neglected until Felda had to spend RM36.9 million to restore the damaged places," he told reporters when met at Felda Sungai Tengi this evening.