KUANTAN: The government continues to show its concern for people with disabilities (OKU) through a slew of allocations and policies, says Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

She said up to January, the Federal Government had allocated RM60.6mil for 175,156 people with disabilities under the handicapped worker's allowance, bedridden patient's aid and unemployed OKU aid schemes nationwide.

"In Pahang alone, the federal government has allocated RM3.7mil for 11,002 OKU under these schemes," Dr Wan Azizah said at the state-level Santuni Rakyat programme here on Saturday (April 13).

She said the participation of OKU in the workforce was also significant as a source of income and as a form of rehabilitation and socialisation.

"In this case, I would like to thank the Pahang state secretary for achieving a 0.51% rate of OKU employed in line with the 1% job opportunity in the civil service for OKU policy.

"I hope this number will continue to rise and the target of 1% is achieved," she said.

Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, urged the private sector, especially well-known corporations in Pahang, to open up job opportunities for the OKU.

A total of five private companies set up interview booths at the event.

She also urged OKU and their caretakers to immediately register at the nearest Social Welfare office.

"This registration is not only to get financial or welfare assistance. What is more important here is the data integrity to ensure the needs of the OKU can be used to develop policies, for us to plan and implement improvements, as well as prepare future initiatives for them," she said.

She added that as of last December, 513,519 OKU or 1.58% of Malaysia's population had registered with the Social Welfare Department.

Earlier at the opening of PKR's Beserah community centre, Dr Wan Azizah said she wished to see service centres of elected representatives become one-stop centres that could provide comprehensive services from government agencies.

She said the delivery of government policies must be carried out efficiently at the parliamentary and state level so that no community would be left out of the country's development process.

"Staff at community service centres must work closely with ministerial agencies.

"Make the service centre lively with knowledge and casual activities so that our presence as the Pakatan Harapan government can be felt by the local residents," she said.

Also present at that event were Indera Mahkota MP Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Pahang PKR chairman Fuziah Salleh and Semambu assemblyman Lee Chean Chung.