SUNGAI Buloh lawmaker Ramanan Ramakrishnan has been appointed special committee chairman of the Malaysian Indian Community Transformation Unit (Mitra).

Four others – Senator Sivarraajh Chandran (MIC), Klang MP V Ganabatirau (DAP), Segamat MP R Yuneswaran (PKR) and Mitra director-general K Raveendran Nair – were also appointed to the committee.

“The appointment of all five is effective April 11. We will be having the first committee meeting tomorrow,” Ramanan told The Malaysian Insight.

Mitra was launched in 2013 by former prime minister Najib Razak. It was previously known as Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic). 

It was established to help poor Indians improve their income-earning potential.  

Following Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the 2018 general election, Sedic was disbanded and later revived as Mitra under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration. 

After the collapse of the PH in 2020, Mitra was placed under the National Unity Ministry. 

Mitra and the use of its funds entered the spotlight in 2021 following the arrest of several company directors who were suspected of embezzling funds allocated by the agency. 

A total of 337 businesses and civil society organisations were identified as having received grants of approximately RM203 million from Mitra between 2019 and 2021. 

Former Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had returned Mitra to the Prime Minister’s Department following a request from MIC president S. A. Vigneswaran.  

Mitra was parked under the Prime Minister’s Department after the unity government took office last November. 

During Budget 2023, Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim allocated funds worth RM100 million for Mitra. – April 18, 2023.