Penang assemblypersons have been accused of withholding information on the free school uniform allocations for poor families, a claim which they have vehemently denied.
In a statement today, Penang Hindu Association president P Murugiah (above) said he was baffled as to why the 40 assemblypersons refused to publicise the distribution of school uniforms which is meant for the poor.
“The information is not announced or published in advance to inform needy and deserving students.
"Many poor families were unaware of such events, when they approach the service centres of the assemblypersons, they were told that the applications are closed already," Murugiah said.
He urged for transparency in the distribution of aid.
"I get an impression that the school uniforms were only distributed to the people that they know or their supporters, not the persons, who really need it," he said.
Syerleena Abdul Rashid (DAP-Seri Delima) refuted Murugiah's claim, saying state reps get the list of poor students from schools, or village development and security committees.
"For me, it is important to give uniforms to those who are genuine and really need them.
"We do not have much allocation, so we have to be very careful that this isn't abused," Syerleena (above) told Malaysiakini.
"There is transparency, this isn't a new thing and members of the public know that they can get information from state reps service centres, schools and village committees," she added.
Jason Ong Khan Lee (PKR-Kebun Bunga) said there was no free allocation for school uniforms.
Annually, he uses his own allotments of about RM20,000 for poor students' uniforms.
"The NGO may have been mistaken about the process of state reps helping poor students with free uniforms," Jason (above) added.
Kumaresan Arumugam (PKR-Batu Uban) said Murugiah's claims were baseless as every assemblyperson conducts his or her own back to school programme for poor students.
He said the constituency has limited allocations and state reps have to carry out careful planning on what they spent on out of their allocation.
Each rep is allocated RM180,000 for infrastructure projects, RM120,00 for supplies and RM50,000 each quarter for special projects.
Money for uniforms for poor children usually comes under the supplies allocation.
"It is not true that we are not transparent about this programme, we have advertised it through our official Facebook pages," Kumaresan (above) said.
"I believe other state reps also have their own channel or method to reach their voter's," he added.
Azrul Mahathir Aziz (Amanah-Bayan Lepas) said poor Muslim students are provided with free uniforms through Penang Zakat, while non-Muslims students are not denied such uniforms.
"Those who are in need can request for the uniforms via the state assemblypersons service centres," Azrul Mahathir said.
"The state reps have their own initiatives to find sponsors for the uniforms.
"In Bayan Lepas, Yayasan Attaqwa sponsored our school uniforms, we also have Indian students in the list," he added.
"There are two village committees which have used grants from Kemas to help students from all races," he said.
Azrul Mahathir denied ever giving out the uniforms to students based on racial or political sentiments.
"We never had an issue about this in Bayan Lepas, real needy students just have to approach our service centre for help," he added. - Mkini
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