Mitra special taskforce committee chairman R Ramanan said about half the allocation will help assist 10,000 second to fourth year students in public universities with their tuition fees, Bernama reported.
“The one-off RM2,000 aid subsidy will be deposited into the Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) account of those who qualify, before the start of the new semester in September or October,” he said at a press conference yesterday.
He added that students can submit their applications online – via the Mitra website – starting from Monday until Sept 15.
Ramanan said a sum of RM10.89 million has been allocated to reduce the number of B40 Indian children who are left behind in early education.
The Early Education Subsidy programme for Tamil private kindergartens registered with the education ministry, is targeted to assist some 4,500 recipients.
“The monthly subsidy of RM200 per child will be paid directly to kindergarten operators to cover fees and breakfast,” he was quoted as saying. He added that the closing date for online applications is May 28.
Ramanan said the remaining RM8.64 million will help fund its dialysis aid subsidy programme for 900 chronic kidney disease patients to cover the cost of one session per week for a year.
“Those who qualify will receive RM200 in subsidies,” he said. Applications for the dialysis aid can be made online from May 8 until Aug 30.
Meanwhile, Ramanan said that the committee would also monitor the finances of all Mitra financial grant 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 added.
Ramanan said that Mitra has so far received 1,227 applications for financial grants since the programme was launched on April 29. The closing date for applications is on May 28.
“We are very transparent and the names of all financial grant recipients will be displayed on our official website,” he said.
He added that officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the integrity department are now involved in every Mitra meeting to ensure the unit was not linked to any embezzlement issues.
This follows multiple cases of alleged misappropriation of Mitra funds between 2019 and 2021 involving companies, associations and NGOs.
In October 2021, MACC arrested 18 people from 10 companies and NGOs while in January 2022, the agency arrested another 22 individuals in seven states.