Kelantan Umno Liaison Committee chairman, Mustapa Mohamed will be touring the state to explain Umno president Najib Razak's address to rouse Umno members into recapturing Kelantan in the upcoming general election.          

Mustapha said the most important thing was for Umno members in the state not to be divided but united at all times.     

"I will meet the grassroots soon on the president's address for the question of party unity to be taken seriously.      

"I want to ensure that sabotage of candidates does not occur and that we must recapture Kelantan," he told reporters after chairing the Kelantan Federal Action Council meeting, Kota Baharu, today.     

He told Kelantanese that Umno would guarantee that only Barisan Nasional (BN) could implement the best, especially to strengthen the economy of the Malays.      

Mustapa said although he had earlier met all Umno leaders in each division, this time he would meet party members at the grassroot level who could not attend the Umno General Assembly 2012 which concluded yesterday.      

Committee on oil royalty

On the petroleum royalty claim by the Kelantan government, Mustapha who is also International Trade and Industry Minister, said the door to negotiation was now open after the state government agreed to send representatives to the special committee meeting on the matter soon.      

"This should be the best platform for the state government to discuss its claims with the special committee," he said.      

Mustapha said with the agreement of the state government to send representatives, it had indirectly recognised the committee.      

In August, the government agreed to set up a special committee to study the issue of cash payment from petroleum revenue to East Coast states of Peninsular Malaysia.    

The prime minister had announced that the special committee would be chaired by former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad with members comprising local and foreign legal experts and government representatives of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu with the consent of their respective rulers.      

Meanwhile, from next year, the federal government is allocating RM14 million to provide an additional l4 street lamp posts for each village in Kelantan.      

"In the past, there were 10 street lamp posts and now there will be an additional 14. This is to brighten up the villages and reduce crime rates there," Mustapa said.      

He said this year, the federal government had allocated RM263 million for rural areas including for building new houses for the poor and repairing more than 4,000 houses.      

However, he added that there were still allegations that the federal government had marginalised Kelantan, so in this regard, Umno would conduct a series of information sessions throughout the state to explain the actual issue as in the water supply issue.      

"The people do not know the role of the federal government in helping Kelantan in the issue of water supply as in some places we have built the plants for free for Kelantan to manage," he said.      

- Bernama