Describing the move as being grossly unjust, he said the action of the urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister in flexing his muscles would serve to help voters make up their minds on who to vote for in the 14th general election due next year.
“Is this not mad?” he said, referring to a reported federal circular cancelling approval for projects in parliamentary constituencies not won by BN.
“We know very well that BN is already mad. If it weren’t so, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) members would not have left BN,” he said at the Pakatan Harapan FT Convention here.
On April 19, Malaysiakini reported that a circular dated March 17 from Local Government Department director-general Abu Bakar Johar had stipulated the directive as covering all projects in the BP1 category, which comprises small-scale infrastructure projects like drains, tarring of roads and roadside lights.
Bakar had reportedly said the decision was made at a meeting on the implementation of BP1 allocations for 2017 held on March 9, which was attended by Noh and heads of city and municipal councils.
On April 20, Oriental Daily quoted Noh as saying that his ministry could only give priority to BN constituencies due to limitations in allocations.
Hatta said this appeared to be an admission by Noh that the government could no longer disburse allocations as its money was limited.
“This means the claim during the tabling of the national budget that the country had a huge income with a high gross domestic product was all nonsense.”
He said Noh had in effect confessed that the government had no funds and was unable to continue with its programmes.
On April 20, Noh denied that projects in opposition-held areas had been axed. He blamed opposition MPs for failing to apply for allocations for BP1 projects in their constituencies.
“For these projects, only BN representatives and the local councils had applied. Even then, not all these projects were approved.”
Responding to this, PKR Women’s head Zuraida Kamaruddin called on Noh to take a pay cut, saying that if one were to follow the logic of the directive from his ministry, the minister’s salary should only be from tax collected from BN supporters.