SHAH ALAM, Jan 4 — The Main Database System (Padu), which was launched on Tuesday, has received encouraging response from the people of Selangor with about 117,000 registrations recorded so far.
State Statistics Department director Hartini Yaacob said that in addition to online registrations, the department had also opened Padu counters to encourage more people to register under the new system.
“For the first week until January 8, we will be operating at 10 Keluarga Malaysia Digital Economy Centres (PEDi) and the Darul Ehsan building,” she said when met at the state government building today.
She added that the purpose of setting up Padu counters was to facilitate the registration process and help those who have difficulty accessing the platform or encounter problems during the registration process.
Hartini said that the department would gradually set up more locations with plans to open 50 Padu counters at 48 PEDi centres and nine People’s Information Centres (PMR) as well as the Selangor Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) here by March.
She said the statistics office is targeting around 4.9 million residents aged 18 and above in the state to register with Padu through various platforms.
Nur Fatin Ashikin Mad Ayob, a 24-year-old civil servant said she did not have access to the platform on the day it was launched, possibly due to the high volume of users.
“But in the evening I tried again and was successful. I completed the registration in about 10 minutes,” she said.
Mohd Danish Ashrafy Mohd Kamal, 25, said that although he was able to register through his smartphone, he preferred to visit the counter opened here to learn more about the government’s new initiatives.
“We know that it is a new scheme managed by the government. So as citizens, we need to know what information is entered and what data is stored by the government and what mechanisms the government uses based on the data received, such as in providing subsidies and assistance to the people,” he said. — Bernama
