The MIC president must come clean on the special allocation meant for Tamil schools, says PKR.
PETALING
JAYA: MIC president G Palanivel has been challenged to reveal details
of the RM100 million special allocation for Tamil schools, announced by
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak when he tabled the 2012 Budget in
September 2011.
Malacca PKR vice-president G Rajendran said while the Education
Ministry had recently said that it dispensed RM10 million out of the
RM100 million, the remainder of RM90 million remained a “mystery”.
He said the failure of the Tamil schools to utilise the fund before
December, 2012 would result in the money “going back” to the Finance
Ministry.
Rajendran said Palanivel, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department, who has been entrusted to handle the special allocation for
Tamil schools, should come clean on the matter and not stay silent
without giving any explanation.
“Palanivel should take the blame since nobody in the MIC has any
knowledge and clue as to what had happened to the allocation… he has
been handling this [allocation] without even informing his party leaders
where the money was going,” he told FMT.
It was reported in February that the Cabinet had agreed to channel
the funds through Surya Cooperative, set up by the party in October,
last year.
The RM100 million allocation was meant for 369 partially-aided Tamil
schools nationwide for three categories, namely maintenance and upgrade,
building additional blocks and building new schools.
However, it is learnt that the 369 partially-aided Tamil schools in the list were reduced to 224 by Palanivel.
Rajendran said the problem was further compounded after Surya
Cooperative director D Ravindran disagreed with Palanivel’s plan to
reduce the number of schools meant to receive the aid.
“And the ego battle may see Palanivel handing the money back to the Education Ministry,” he said.
A ‘stupid’ move
FMT also learnt that two MIC leaders, namely S Veerasingham and MM
Samy, had raised questions on the RM100 million at a party central
working committee (CWC) meeting recently.
“Palanivel told them [CWC members] that he will tell them details of
the fund soon… but until now nothing has been made public,” said a CWC
member when contacted.
Rajendran said the money should be fully utilised as sending back the unused money to the ministry would be “a stupid” move.
“Once the money is sent back, they [MIC] have to start the whole
process again if there are Tamil schools wanting assistance and this
would take time. Even if the money is rolled back and added to the other
RM100 million announced in the 2013 Budget, the process of applying for
funds would be long and tedious,” said the opposition grassroots
leader.
The idea of special allocation to schools nationwide was mooted by
Najib in a move to upgrade the condition of partially-aided schools.
In 2012, Najib announced RM500 million for national schools and RM100
million each to Chinese, Tamil and religious schools respectively.
He also promised an additional RM100 million for Tamil schools in the 2013 Budget.
Palanivel could not be reached for comment as he is abroad and is only expected to return to work in early next month.
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