PUTRAJAYA: Three initiatives for the B40 Indian community will be rolled out this year, says the Malaysian Indian Community Transformation Unit (Mitra).
Its special vehicle committee chairman Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan said the initiatives would focus on education, the economy, job training, as well as welfare and social well-being.
He said 10,000 students from the B40 group at public universities would receive benefits under the Bachelor’s degree university assistance subsidy programme, which would cost an estimated RM20mil.
“The purpose of this programme is to ease the financial burden of parents whose children are in second, third or final year at public universities. Each student will receive a one-off subsidy of RM2,000.
“In collaboration with Bank Simpanan Nasional, the funds will be distributed before the semester begins.
“Applications will be opened from 2pm on May 8 until Sept 15, on a first come, first served basis,” he told reporters after chairing a meeting on Mitra’s programmes here yesterday.
Ramanan, who is also Sungai Buloh MP, said the second initiative would see RM10.8mil set aside for private Tamil kindergartens registered with the Education Ministry.
“Each child will get a monthly subsidy of RM200, which will cover kindergarten fees and breakfast for one year.
“This programme, targeting 4,500 recipients, is aimed at reducing early education dropouts and to deal with literacy and numeracy problems among children,” he said, adding that applications would be closed by 5pm on May 28.
Ramanan also announced that a RM8.64mil health initiative, aimed at helping some 900 chronic kidney patients, would be implemented.
Each patient would get a RM200 subsidy per dialysis session and applications would be open from May 8 until Aug 30, Ramanan said.
