Putting Mitra under HR Ministry won’t dilute goal of uplifting Indian community, says minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — The Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) may be under the Human Resource Ministry (Kesuma), but that does not alter its original mandate as an agency specifically responsible for the socio-economic development of the Indian community.

Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri R. Ramanan said that instead, the move has strengthened the Madani government’s commitment to ensuring the agenda of welfare, social mobility and human capital development of the Indian community is implemented in a more integrated and high-impact manner.

“In this regard, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is of the view that placing Mitra under Kesuma will not affect that principle, but instead strengthen Mitra’s position by comprehensively integrating the agenda of Indian community development into the country’s human resource development,” he said during the Ministers’ Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was replying to a question from Kalam Salan (PN-Sabak Bernam), who asked whether the government could assure that placing Mitra under Kesuma would not jeopardise the interests and welfare of the Indian community, given the ministry’s existing heavy workload.

Ramanan said the move was made to ensure the planning, implementation and monitoring of Mitra programmes could be carried out in an organised, systematic and effective manner, in line with policies on workforce development, employability, skills improvement and social protection under Kesuma.

He said it would at the same time strengthen governance, transparency and accountability in Mitra’s allocation and programme management.

Replying to a supplementary question from Kalam on allegations of the total failure of Mitra’s aid applications in 2025 in the Sabak Bernam area, as well as issues involving assistance for university students, Ramanan said all recipients of Mitra aid programmes are displayed on the agency’s official website.

He said that for the first-year university graduate programme, about RM4,000 in financial aid was channelled in phases to eligible recipients.

For laptop assistance, he said 3,000 new laptops purchased by Yayasan Didik Negara have been and are being distributed to students in public and private institutions of higher learning.

He added that aid applications are implemented on a first-come, first-served basis.

“Many of the implemented programmes have already achieved excellent status,” he said, adding that RM48.874 million has also been disbursed to recipients so far, with the balance of the allocation still being channelled.

Replying to a supplementary question from Azil Yusof (PH-Shah Alam) on the involvement of local service centres and community leaders, Ramanan said an allocation of RM100,000 in 2023 was disbursed not based on parliamentary constituencies, but on districts with the highest density of Indian residents.

He added that in 2024, Mitra implemented various other programmes, including the empowerment of houses of worship, aid for school maintenance, minor repairs, assistance for plantation workers, student device programmes, kindergartens, as well as public facilities and security for Indian villages.

As such, Ramanan said his ministry has given an assurance that for this year, additional targeted allocation programmes will be re-implemented with the involvement of Members of Parliament and local leaders. 

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