SHAH ALAM, 20 Nov: A total of 2,181 youths in Selangor benefited from the Youth Marriage Incentive Programme organised by the state since January.
The Executive Councillor for Youth, Sports, Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi, said that the state government received 2,497 application involving eight phases since it was launched by the Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, as of 7 November.
He said that the amount is still low when compared to the marriage statistics recorded in Selangor by the Marriage Registration Department under the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) throughout the year.
“18,000 registrations were recorded for Muslims and 7,000 were received for non-Muslims,” he said when responding to questions from Mohd Haslin Hassan (PAS – Tanjong Sepat) during the Selangor State Assembly session today.
Previously, the marriage incentives was organised under the Merakyatkan Ekonomi Selangor (MES) agenda which set for every bridal couple to receive RM200 cash from the state government.
However, the incentive will be increased to RM500, as promised in the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat manifesto during the 13th General Election (GE-13).
Among the requirements to participate in the programme is that a couple who have lived in Selangor for at least 15 years can be considered permanent residents.
In this regard, Dr Ahmad Yunus said that non-Muslims are also invited to participate in this programme because it is not specific to Malay-Muslim youth only, but for all youths including Chinese and Indians.
