New Tamil schools: Cheer in Johor, gloom in Selangor .

MERSING: In this season of gift-giving, some dreams do come true as in the case of the Mersing Tamil school. After more than 50 years of squatting on someone else's land, it finally received a gift of a three-acre plot to build its own school.According to Tenggorah assemblywoman T Murukasvary, Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman had on Dec 2 visited the school and informed the school authorities of their land allocation.

"Ghani came to the school and told us the state will allocate three acres of land in Mersing Kecil to build a new school."We are very happy and thankful for this...we have waited a long time," she told FMT.Founded in 1951, the school was partly destroyed in a storm and had to move into a private building until 1960."After that we moved into the current site here in Sri Mersing Secondary School," said Murukasvary.She said they are now in the process of raising funds to build the school.Meanwhile, Murukasvary said the community would push for a quick documentation process."The Indian community here wants the relevant documents signed and matter settled now that the MB has issued the directive."We don't want this to turn into just another election gimmick," she said.

Bitter Indians

Meanwhile in Selangor, however, there is less cheer, as the 10,000-strong Indian community in Kampung Lindungan battle with the Pakatan Rakyat government for a school.Disgruntled Indians here have alleged that Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim's administration has “swindled” the community on the issue of Tamil school.
According to a report in Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban, the Selangor government had apparently given them 1.5 acres of land for a new Tamil school in Desa Mentari, formerly known as Kampung Lindungan.

But Kelana Jaya PKR leader Dr S Vignes has disputed this, saying that the state government had promised two acres of land for the school but this was not documented."When Khalid and state councillor Dr Xavier (Jeyakumar) launched the pre-school programme in Desa Mentari last March, they promised the community two acres of land for the Tamil school."But since then nothing was issued to us in writing.

"During the Barisan Nasional era, the school was given seven acres, but due to MIC's negligence, half the land now belongs to Umno," he said.Vignes said both the state adminsitrations appeared to be swindling the Indians of what was theirs."My question now is, where is the two-acre site which they (Khalid and Xavier) promised us last March?"Why has Xavier only managed to get a 1.5 acres plot for the 10,000 Indian residents here?," he asked.Currently, the parents around Desa Mentari are sending their children to Vivekanda Tamil School located at Petaling Jaya.

"Parents are spending almost RM70 per month per child for transport alone."Just imagine, if there are four children in one family, how much do they have to spend for transport only?" he asked.

Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/barisan-nasional/13932-new-tamil-schools-cheer-in-johor-gloom-in-selangor