PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) has disbursed RM20 million to the National Savings Bank (BSN) to provide one-off financial assistance of RM2,000 to 10,000 B40 undergraduate students who require help with their tuition fees.
"As of yesterday, Aug 31, we have received 8,583 applications and BSN has paid out to 2,492 students, totalling RM4,984,000," said Mitra president Datuk R. Ramanan.
Mitra said the disbursement is done in phases, and the remaining 701 successful applicants are expected to receive the assistance in the upcoming week.
Mitra urged students to quickly seize the opportunity to apply for special one-time assistance before Sept 15, to alleviate burdens for students in need.
Mitra also updated on the socioeconomic development programme in collaboration with 72 member of parliament service centres, stating that a total of RM3.59 million have been disbursed to 36 constituencies.
The remaining 11 applications, worth RM 1.1 million are in the payment process and expected to be completed in the first week of September.
Under the Mitra early childhood education subsidy involving a fund of RM10.8 million, 145 kindergartens, involving a total of 3,916 children are benefited.
The Mitra Dialysis Subsidy Programme, with a budget of RM8.64 million, has received applications from 135 dialysis centres by August 30, 2023.
Currently, 19 centres have been approved, benefiting 140 patients with payment of RM1.08 million.
Mitra highlighted that a thorough verification process is ongoing to prevent duplicates, and the remaining subsidy balance will be distributed gradually in September 2023.
Also, Mitra announced that an agreement has been signed with Google today for an initiative involving the rollout of 6,000 refurbished computers to 527 vernacular Tamil schools (SJKT) nationwide, totalling RM2.9 million.
Mitra updated that the initiatives for drone operations and data services (DRONE), electrified automation advancement programme (EAAP) and licensed aircraft maintenance technicians (LAMT) have seen applications exceeding available slots.
In the meantime, Mitra president Datuk R. Ramanan also mentioned that after a discussion with the prime minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Mitra would soon be upgraded, facilitating the agency to expand its workforce.
Commenting on a separate issue, Ramanan said he welcomed any groups coming together to help the Indian community.
Recently, Selangor Indian Executive Association (PEIS) suggested that the state government should have a special development unit like MITRA formed at the state level to help the Indian community in the state.
"I believe that even at this current moment, with all that help that we are able to dish out or do, we are still really lacking in terms of helping the community."
"We (Mitra) are already shorthanded in what we are trying to achieve and trying to do for the community. So we need as many helping hands as possible," he said.