THE Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) will be returned to the National Unity Ministry after its stint under the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim revealed.
The prime minister assured that he will still continue to monitor the special unit responsible for addressing the socioeconomic development issues of the Indian community in the country.
Speaking during a dialogue session with media editors at Seri Perdana in Putrajaya yesterday, Anwar acknowledged that Mitra has had problems since a few years back.
He said that the unity government, which took power in November last year, worked on fixing the issues.
The focus was on making the agency’s programmes, especially in the allocations, more transparent. It was important that its allocations do not go to any political outfit but direct to the community, students, and those in need.
Anwar urged the Indian community not to be unduly concerned about the administration of Mitra after it operates under a different ministry.
Functioning under strict regulations, the unit is still subject to stringent conditions to prevent any abuse of power or misconduct.
Interestingly, the redesignation of Mitra comes just as Saraswathy Kandasamy, a PKR vice-president, was made deputy unity minister in the cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.
She was previously a deputy minister in the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry. Saraswathy has been involved in matters of Indian economic upliftment and welfare.
In March this year, then deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (law and institutional reforms) Ramkarpal Singh had told the Dewan Rakyat that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had opened 33 investigation papers into the misappropriation of Mitra funds, ten of which had been brought to court by then.
Mitra special task force committee chairman Datuk R. Ramanan later said that officers from the MACC and the Integrity Department were involved in every Mitra meeting to ensure the unit was not linked to any embezzlement issues.
“We are very transparent, and the names of all financial grant recipients will be displayed on our official website,” he had said in May.
Ramanan said that the committee would also monitor the finances of recipients to ensure that they make good use of the funds for their intended purposes, which has now been expanded to 10 fields.
“All recipients must sign a declaration to implement whatever they need to do using the funds received. If they do not use the money for that purpose, they have to return the money,” he said.
In June, Ramanan had announced that the unit will implement a targeted socioeconomic development programme in 72 parliamentary constituencies that have a high density of Indian communities.
He said the programme involves an allocation of RM7.2 million, with each MP in the area receiving a fund of RM100,000 to implement programmes such as human capital development, entrepreneurship and career or social and welfare development.
Among the areas with a high density of Indian communities are Petaling in Selangor with 189,378 people, Johor Baru in Johor (126,803), and Kinta district in Perak (104,831).
Earlier, Mitra had allocated RM20 million for its bachelor’s degree tuition assistance subsidy programme for B40 Indian students in public universities.
Ramanan had said that the aid was specially for 10,000 second- to fourth-year students. They received a one-off RM2,000 subsidy before the start of the semester in September or October.
The agency has its roots in the Socioeconomic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic), which was renamed Mitra in 2018.
It was originally under the National Unity Ministry but was transferred to be under the direct watch of the Prime Minister’s Department in September 2022. – The Vibes, December 24, 2023
