What happened to the Indian Cultural Centre?

A consumer group wants previous and current Selangor state administrations to account for the hefty allocation set aside for the project.

KLANG: The Malaysian Consumer Advisory Association (MCAA) wants the previous administration and the current Selangor state government to account for a sizeable allocation that was set aside for the construction of an Indian Cultural Centre prior to the 12th general election.

Association president G Varatharajoo, who forwarded a Jan 20, 2008 news report on the matter to FMT, said the the BN state government had allocated a hefty sum for the Indian cultural centre to be built in Selangor.

According to the report, former menteri besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo acknowledged that the state had awarded funds for the centre and had commissioned several Indian-based NGOs, headed by MIC’s Kamala Ganapathy, a former state executive councillor, to come up with a blueprint for it.

The news article stated that the BN state government had also approved RM2 million for the betterment of Tamil vernacular schools in Selangor.

However, both these allocations have not been accounted for after BN was defeated in the 2008 general election.

“We want to know what happened to these allocations,” Varatharajoo told FMT.

“The Pakatan Rakyat government should follow up on the idea for an Indian cultural centre. It cannot sidelined the project simply because it was BN’s brainchild.”

Contacted later, Kamala claimed that the fund for the cultural centre is with the current state government.

“The project was delayed after we could not find suitable land to build the centre. And after BN lost in Selangor, the fund was transferred to Pakatan state government,” she said.

When asked about the RM2 million allocation for Tamil schools, Kamala claimed the money had already been disbursed to several schools although she could not recall how many schools had benefited from the allocation.

FMT could not reach Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, the current state executive council member in charge of Indian Affairs, for further clarification on both the issues.