Peeved over the long delay in the disbursement of funds to government-aided Tamil schools, a grassroots coalition is urging the government to channel the allocations directly to the school boards.

The group comprising the Coalition of Tamil School Boards and the Malaysian Indian Political Transformation (Mitra) movement, said in a statement yesterday that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had allocated around RM380 million in the past three years.

"However, no real impact can be seen in the schools' infrastructure, as the funds are not reaching us," claimed coalition chairperson R Kannan.

lukut sungai salak tamil school 090807 end lot He pointed out that funding for Chinese-medium or religious schools were usually distributed directly to their administrations, unlike the Tamil school situation where the funds go through the Public Works Department (PWD).

The lack of transparency in the disbursement of the funds in this case has long been criticised by non-governmental groups, following delays in identifying the schools that qualify for the allocation.

According to several news reports, the education ministry divides the allocation into three categories - relocation, additional building and upgrading of existing infrastructures.

"PWD has been proven to have problems with bureaucracy, extra costs, wastage, diminishing of actual funding, and no system of control or responsibility, which will cause them to fail in helping us," he said.

In an open letter to Najib, Kannan said that the distribution system's unfairness clearly displayed discrimination and condescension towards Tamil schools.

He warned that if the government continued to disparage the ability of Tamil schools and discriminated against them, dissatisfaction arising in the Indian community could cost BN votes in the coming general election.