PUTRAJAYA, May 6 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants the members of the Cabinet and heads of departments (HODs) to immediately submit the names of the villages they will represent, preferably their own, in order to help uplift the lives of the residents, especially the poor.

He said this is a new idea and approach to ensure that long-standing problems in rural areas can be addressed systematically and effectively.

"They must listen to every problem and try to solve them. Issues such as unemployment, and dropout rates, for example, can be rectified more promptly.

"A Madani nation must start from the grassroots and move upright on the path of change,” he said at the Prime Minister’s Department’s monthly assembly here today.

Anwar said the government has allocated over RM22 billion to assist the poor through various ministries and departments based on inputs obtained from village chiefs and headmen from meetings with government representatives. — Bernama