Revelations by certain ministers of funds being allocated to the Indian community, in particular the RM35 million budget to resolve the housing issue faced by residents of Taman Permata in Dengkil, Selangor, came as a surprise to former deputy minister P. Waytha Moorthy (pic).
Waytha also responded to ministers who had said that he wanted funds for the uplifting of the Indian community to be parked under him.
"Of course I wanted it that way because that is part of the MoU Barisan Nasional signed with Hindraf, to have a focus and targeted approach to the solutions for poor Indians,” he said today.
Waytha said that this was also because other ministers and the units under them had a budget to work with.
"In my case, I didn't have a minister and as a deputy minister with a specific function, the budget should be parked under my unit," he said.
Waytha also refuted the prime minister’s statement that he was unaware of his impending resignation, saying Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had known since last October, when Waytha had applied for unpaid leave from the government.
On February 14, Najib said that the Hindraf chief should have discussed his resignation with him before doing it.
“His approach may be different, but he should have come to see me and talked about it before announcing he was going to resign,” Najib said in a statement, describing Waytha’s resignation as “disheartening”.
Waytha had resigned on February 10, saying Putrajaya had been “dragging its feet” in delivering its promises to aid the poor Malaysian Indian community.
Waytha said today that even the affected residents in Dengkil had called him to express surprise over the RM35 million allocation.
"They called me yesterday expressing shock because they are also unaware of this," he said.
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