Works Minister S Samy Vellu today said he will soon release a list of new Tamil primary schools that were built by the government last year.

He however said that he will not pass on the list to Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang who had earlier questioned Samy Vellu's statement on the construction of the new schools.

"I will release the list to the media in two or three days but I am not going to present the list to him," Samy Vellu was quoted as saying in Bernama .

Yesterday Lim said that Samy Vellu, who is also the MIC president, should back his claims of the new Tamil schools by naming them.

The minister had earlier said that the government had built these 21 new schools under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (8MP) despite not being allocated for under the plan. Samy Vellu also said that another 64 existing schools were upgraded.

Lim disputed the constructions of the new schools, calling Samy Vellu's remarks as a "preposterous claim".

"Let me state outright that I do not believe Samy Vellu...we are not talking about the relocating of schools premises, but entirely new ones," he said.

"If Samy Vellu can produce a list of schools... which were not relocated from existing schools, I am prepared to tender a public apology," said Lim, who is also the Ipoh Timor MP.

Rebuilt schools are new schools

Reacting to this today, Samy Vellu said that Lim was just trying to harp on the issue unnecessarily.

"He (Lim) is trying to poke to get more information he could harp on unnecessarily. Why should I give him the list of new schools ... let him go find it himself," said Samy Vellu.

Samy Vellu also rejected claims that the 21 schools were not newly built.

"There are new schools. When people relocate, we have to build a new school. Although it is replacing an older school, it is still a new school.

"We have more than 500 Tamil schools in the country and out of these more than 100 schools need to be rebuilt. When we rebuild, they become new schools," he said.