PULAU BANGGI: The National Registration Department (JPN) today handed replacement identification documents to 37 victims of the fire at Kampung Perpaduan water village in Pulau Banggi, Kudat, on Jan 13.
JPN director-general Datuk Mohammad Razin Abdullah said 14 of the documents were birth certificate extracts, 13 MyKad and 10 MyKid.
“The handing over of the replacement identification documents was a field programme implemented by JPN Sabah to make it easy for the victims of disasters to get replacement documents.
“We know how difficult it is for the victims to apply for the replacement identification documents, taking into account even the distance to the JPN office. So, we took the initiative to assist them,” he told Bernama after the handing-over event.
Also present were Sabah Assistant Minister of Education and Innovation Mohamad Mohamarin, who is the Banggi assemblyman, and Sabah JPN director Datuk Ismail Ahmad.
The fire at 2.30 pm on Jan 13 destroyed 81 houses and left 303 people homeless.
Mohammad Razin explained that only 37 documents were given out today because several of the victims had not lost their documents in the fire while others had taken their own initiative to secure the replacements.
He also urged certain quarters not to associate the handing over of the documents with the issuing of documents to illegal immigrants.
“I have to remind the public not to misunderstand this programme because the intention is to replace identification documents and not issue new identity cards to ineligible people,” he said. — Bernama
