Malaysian PM Announces Several Key Initiatives For Indian Community

KAPAR, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- The Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Tun Razak Sunday night announced several key initiatives for the Indian community which included the construction of new classroom blocks for National-Type Tamil Primary Schools (SJKTs) here and Klang and additional places for Indian students at matriculation colleges in the country. The prime minister said enough allocations would be provided for the construction of a new block for SJKT Methodist in Kapar as requested by the school's management and parents of the students there. In his speech before a crowd exceeding 20,000 people from the community who had gathered for a Ponggal (Indian harvest festival) celebration here, Najib said the government was also looking into building three school blocks needed by SJKT Simpang Lima in Klang. "The construction of the three blocks is to accomodate the increasing enrolment at the first Tamil cluster school in the country," he said when addressing the crowd at the TNB quarters Kilat Club field here. Najib also announced that the intake of Indian students at matriculation colleges would be increased from 559 now to more than 1,500 for the 2012/2013 academic term. Also present were the prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor, Information, Communications and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim and MIC president G. Palanivel. Najib said adding more places at matriculation colleges would have a big impact on the number of Indian students qualifying for tertiary education, which was greeted by robust "ayes" from the people present, who did not budge from the place despite heavy rain. At the ceremony, which was also graced by performances by local artistes and also from India, Najib had more good news for the Indian community in Kapar. He said the government would give adequate aid for the building of a crematorium in Kapar town so that the Indian community would be able to carry out funerals without having to go elsewhere for the facility. All the initiatives were in line with the inclusive 1Malaysia concept which sought social justice for all, he said. "I invite the Indian community to be a partner of the government based on the spirit of 'nambikei' (trust) to bring Malaysia to greater heights," he said, adding that the government had approved an additional allocation of RM340 million for Tamil schools throughouty the country. Meanwhile, Palanivel in his speech, said he hoped najib would provide more opportunities in agriculture and agro-based industries for the Indian community as it would help in boosting gross domestic product. (US$1=RM3.01) -- BERNAMA