Putrajaya has been criticised for the manual distribution of BR1M vouchers instead of banking in the aid.

PKR Youth strategic director Akmal Nasir questioned if the sudden change of policy was due to the approaching general election.

"If this is true, then it is a tragedy as Umno/BN is manipulating the poor in a bid to gain political mileage," he said in a statement today.

Akmal was responding to reports of senior citizens having to forego the aid as they are unable to cope with the long journey and queue for the BR1M vouchers.

One such example is 73-year old Chan Gan, who was asked to make an 80km journey from Sitiawan to Ipoh to collect the cash aid voucher.

Akmal reminded the government that the main purpose of BR1M was to help alleviate people's cost of living and not an election tool.

"It has to be reminded that the people are impacted by the uncertain economy and the increase in the price of goods and services.

"Cost of living has gone up, so has the price of petrol and diesel as well as the six percent goods and services tax (GST)," he said.

"The government does not need to torture people by asking them to go through long queues and crowds in order to get the vouchers," he said.

Akmal urged the government to revert to the previous method of directly banking in the aid to qualified recipients.