JPN processes 100,000 applications under Mekar programme

 

National registration department director-general Ruslin Jusoh handing over a new MyKad to Sehah Alang Shafie, 98, at Bukit Chandan in Kuala Kangsar today as part of the Mekar outreach programme. (Bernama pic)

KUALA KANGSAR: The national registration department, through the Menyemai Kasih Rakyat (Mekar) programme, has to date received a total of 104,517 applications related to identification documents.

Department director-general Ruslin Jusoh said the applications were received from target groups through 4,116 Mekar programmes implemented since 2017 to facilitate applications and replacement of identity cards, and birth and death certificates, among others.

“The Mekar programme is our outreach programme to help issue identification documents like MyKad and birth certificates to target groups such as senior citizens, persons with disabilities, the less fortunate, orphans and those living in interior areas.”

He said this at a press conference after handing over the MyKad to nonagenarian Sehah Alang Shafie in Jalan Raja Muda, Bukit Chandan, here today.

Ruslin said the department had also formed a special task force to update its records on Malaysians aged 90 and above, whether they were still alive or had died.

“Such records are important for the department as the agency responsible for regulating and managing information on the country’s population. Checks are also made through their next of kin and head of villages.

“To date, we have found that there are 63,620 people aged 90 and above, out of whom 6,923 are living in Perak,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ruslin said the Mekar programme had helped Sehah, 98, to replace her MyKad without having to go to the department’s office.

Sehah was born in Parit on Sept 1, 1923 and is now living in Kuala Kangsar. She has nine children aged between 55 and 69. - FMT