‘MIC boss deprives 145 Tamil schools of aid’

A MIC branch leader alleges that G Palanivel altered a Cabinet list on providing funds to partially-aided Tamil schools.

PETALING JAYA: A MIC branch leader has accused party president G Palanivel of depriving 145 partially-aided Tamil schools of allocations this year.

SS2 Tengah MIC branch chairman S Padnmanagan said in February, the Cabinet had approved RM100 million for partially-aided Tamil schools nationwide.

“In the original list presented to the Cabinet in February, it was stated that the money would be channelled to 369 partially-aided Tamil schools nationwide for three categories, namely maintenance and upgrade, building additional blocks and building new schools.

“But in a revision done by MIC in May, the party leadership reduced the number of schools to 224 only. What happened to the rest?” he asked.

Although the number of schools in the list were reduced, the allocation remained at RM100 million.

In the original list, the money divided for the three categories were as follows:

1) Maintenance and upgrade – RM20,200,000

2) Additional blokcs – RM39,800,000

3) New schools – RM40,000.000

But in the revised list, the fund was divided as following:

1) Maintenance and upgrade – RM16,255,000

2) Additional blokcs – RM39,700,000

3) New schools – RM44,045.000

The revised list also showed that a substantial number of partially-aided Tamil schools supposed to receive aid for maintenance and upgrade were reduced.

The schools affected were in Johor (48 to 29), Malacca (11 to 3), Negeri Sembilan (43 to 17), Pahang (23 to 13), Perak (80 to 33), Penang (19 to 8) and Selangor (55 to 29).

Padnmanagan urged Palanivel to explain the matter to the public as many students were affected by this.

He also claimed that the party leadership only took the funds from the government in September, while aid for other vernacular schools were released early this year.

“Palanivel single-handedly deprived allocation for many Tamil schools. I can’t blame the party central working committee (CWC) because the party president holds veto power.

“Even if the CWC approves something, the party president has the authority to overule the decision. But how can one man decide the fate of Tamil schools in the nation?” he asked.

Name the students

He also challenged Palanivel to list out the names of hardcore poor Indians students who received aid under the party’s Reach and Teach Programme.

The programme, a brainchild of MIC, was to provide basic aid such as books, bags, schools uniform and others to poor Indian students.

“The president must be transparent about this. In my area alone, many poor Indian students did not receive the aid,” claimed Padnmanagan.

Two days ago, Bernama reported Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop saying that the government allocated about RM340 million as aid to 523 Tamil schools nationwide since 2009.

“Overall, the government set aside RM500 million till 2013 to uplift the Tamil schools in the country,” the Tasil Gelugor MP said.