The People's Volunteer Corps (Rela) will place its members at 417 high-risk schools which have been involved in accidents and kidnappings throughout the country.

It director-general Mustafa Ibrahim said Rela was ready to place more members in all schools if the response was encouraging and there were requests from the schools.

He said the presence of the Rela members would help reduce incidences of crime involving students, especially in big cities.

"The number of accidents and kidnappings involving students in big cities is high, so the presence of Rela members in the schools would help monitor them.

"Before this, we had placed members in schools to help oversee security when they are in the schools but we had to stop last November due to lack of funds," he told reporters after launching the Polytechnic Relasis Brigade at the Terengganu level in Dungun today.

He said beginning June 15, Rela would activate its members and place them in schools which needed their service.

Mustafa said the proactive step taken by Rela would regain the confidence of the public who send their children to schools.

He said Rela members would also be sent to petrol stations in border states such as Perak, Perlis and Kelantan.

This would help the authorities curb such activities as diesel smuggling.

He added that Rela members would also be stationed at 12 Immigration depots throughout the country for security control, guard government building and power stations, to avoid cable theft.

- Bernama