‘MIC boss deprives 145 Tamil schools of aid’

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Dec 17, 2012

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

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.