Permatang Pauh: The National Action Council on Cost of Living (NACCOL) has distributed 100 cows at half of the market price to ease the financial burden of Permatang Pauh constituents performing the sacrificial ritual in conjunction with Aidiladha this Saturday. Senior political secretary to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, stated that NACCOL has taken the initiative to provide each cow weighing 220 kg or more.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, through this special programme, each cow is sold at RM2,800, with individual portions priced at RM399. For a start, it is being offered exclusively to the Permatang Pauh constituents, in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's intention to ensure that the underprivileged can perform the sacrificial rite. Although Permatang Pauh is not the Prime Minister's parliamentary constituency, he feels a strong connection to this area. That is why he wants to help ease the burden of the people here and allow them to carry out the ritual at an affordable price. Shamsul Iskandar shared this information with reporters after the ceremony to distribute the sacrificial cows at the Taman Arowana night market site today.
Under the programme, 40 areas, including mosques and surau, as well as members of non-governmental organisations and staff of government agencies in the constituency, received the cows that they had purchased. Shamsul Iskandar noted that the initiative did not involve any government subsidies, as NACCOL purchased the cattle directly from farms in large quantities.
He mentioned that the sacrificial cows were obtained through collaboration with the Johor State Farmers' Organisation and Johor Plantations Group, adding that the initiative will be expanded to other parliamentary constituencies next year. For example, the congregation of Masjid Kubang Ulu in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency purchased 17 cows. The total would have reached RM95,000, but through this initiative, they only paid RM47,000, resulting in savings of nearly 50 per cent.