RM100mil allocation for Mitra fully disbursed

Money well spent: Ramanan (centre) says RM8.24mil has been used to help hardcore poor families. — KAMARUL ARIFFIN/The Star

PUTRAJAYA: A sum of RM8.24mil has been spent by the Malaysia Indian Community Transformation Unit (Mitra) to help hardcore poor Indian households, says Datuk R. Ramanan.

The Mitra special vehicle committee chairman said the sum was part of the RM100mil received under Budget 2023 that had been fully disbursed and benefited more than 100,000 people.

The RM8.24mil used to help hardcore poor Indian households was done under Mitra’s Poverty Eradication Programme for Indian households (AIR) which would be carried out in stages, he said.

“The first phase in 2023 will focus on hardcore poor Indian families in Kuala Lumpur.

“As many as 1,800 family households with less than RM339 income per capita have been identified by the National Poverty Data Bank System, also known as eKasih,” he said.

Other than the AIR programme, a total of RM39.6mil has been channelled to provide subsidies for university degrees programmes, private kindergarten education and dialysis procedures.This is also the first time in seven years that Mitra successfully utilised all RM100mil allocated, Ramanan said during a press conference at the Mitra office yesterday.

“In 2016, Mitra, which was then known as the Socio-Economic Development Indian Unit (Sedic), used 35% of its allocation, followed by 57% in 2017 and only 1% in 2018.

“Following Sedic’s rebranding to Mitra in 2018, the unit used 58% of its allocation in 2019, 63% in 2020, 73% in 2021 and 63% in 2022.

“Based on previously- announced programmes, we are pleased to say that all RM100mil of Mitra’s allocation under Budget 2023 has been utilised for this year,” said Ramanan, who is also PKR’s Sg Buloh MP.

When asked whether Mitra hoped for more funds under the upcoming Budget 2024, Ramanan said he would leave it to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“I’m sure that the Prime Minister will take into account the fact that the money (allocated to Mitra) was spent properly this year.

“We’re hopeful that he will give a bigger amount (of allocation) to the Indian community (under Budget 2024), but I will leave it up to him to determine the direction we should head in,” he said.