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KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14   -- Education and training would continue to be a major segment of the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) expenditure through the RM100 million allocation announced in the 2020 Budget last Friday.

Mitra Director-General M. Mahalingam said the body, which focuses on solving serious issues in the community, has planned to distribute a bulk of the allocation for the two segments in an effort to uplift the community’s socioeconomic status.

 “We will continue with the initiative such as the one-off financial grant assistance to students from the B40 lower-income Indian community who have been offered a place at local government institutions of higher learning.

“Besides education, Mitra would also focus on other segments such as economy and career, social, and well-being as well as identity and inclusion,” he told Bernama here recently.

According to Mahalingam, almost 80 per cent of the allocation under the 2019 Budget was channeled towards implementing programmes under Mitra.

He said it was clearly seen that the 2020 Budget was comprehensive, covering all sectors in the society especially addressing the high unemployment issue through the #Malaysians@Work initiative in the long term.

 The 2020 Budget also will provide loans of up to RM20 million under the TEKUN Nasional’s Indian Community Entrepreneur Development Scheme (SPUMI), and RM50 million for the maintenance and upgrading of existing Tamil schools.

-- BERNAMA