MIC is awaiting clearance from the Finance Ministry on the party's request for an additional allocation of RM53 million for the construction of new buildings in several Tamil schools, including the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang in Kedah's Jerai constituency.

samy vellu exclusive on tamil schools 080708 06 MIC president S Samy Vellu said at least RM1.6 million was needed to construct a new building for the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang on a piece of land reportedly already earmarked for the school.

"This project (SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang) was supposed to have started some time back but because of the escalation in the construction cost of the Tamil schools, it had to be deferred along with several other (Tamil) schools," he said in a statement today.

Samy Vellu was commenting on a Malaysiakini report today which said that despite a 5.5 acre land allocated by the Kedah state government last April for the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang, there was still no word on the construction of the building.

Samy Vellu said the request for the RM53 million extra allocation to cover the escalated construction cost from the original RM130 million allocated by the government, was made to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also the finance minister when he chaired the special cabinet committee for the development of the Indian community recently.

Many Tamil schools have been rebuilt

He said the RM53 million additional allocation was "over and above" the RM100 million approved by Najib under the two economic stimulus packages and another RM30 million approved during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure as prime minister.

"Once the additional allocation has been approved, work on the projects can start after tender processes are completed by the Public Works Department (PWD)," he said, adding that all allocations from the Finance Ministry would be channeled as usual through the PWD.

Samy Vellu said MIC had listed out many Tamil schools which required new buildings, and construction work would commence in stages, depending on the availability of funds from the Finance Ministry.

"The government has already rebuilt many Tamil schools over the years through MIC, and many more will be redeveloped," he said.

He also said MIC was working with the Education Ministry to switch partially-aided Tamil schools into fully-aided schools.

There are more than 520 Tamil schools throughout the country with a population of almost 110,000 students.