By NNN-Bernama,
Sungai Siput, Malaysia : The government’s new approach in tackling the problems faced by the Indian community has renewed the community’s confidence and support towards the Barisan Nasional (BN), said MIC President S. Samy Vellu.
He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had taken a different approach that was more practical and vigorous in dealing with the Indian community’s woes through direct government intervention.
“Today, almost 2,000 Indians from Sungai Siput and neighbouring towns have had their problems addressed directly by the relevant government departments andagencies,” he told reporters after attending a meet-the-people programme jointly
organised by the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) and the MIC, here yesterday.
The SITF, headed by Human Resources Minister and MIC vice-president Dr S. Subramaniam, was formed early this year to implement the decisions of the Cabinet Committee for the Development of Indians chaired by Najib.
Samy Vellu said that, if previously, the Indians had to take up their problems personally with the relevant departments and agencies, now they only needed to attend the one-stop centre, referring to the SITF’s meet-the-people session where departments and agencies would set up booths to try and resolve the community’s problems.
The Sungai Siput programme was the sixth in the series of meet-the-people sessions organised by the SITF throughout the country, the first being in Ijok, Selangor, in August.
Samy Vellu said that based on feedback, the Indian community was happy with the government’s new approach in dealing with their problems.
The former Sungai Siput MP and works minister said he was confident that the MIC and SITF would hold more such programmes for the Indian community in other areas.
Samy Vellu said there was still a lot more to be done to address the problems of the Indian community, stressing that what was important was the outcome and not the output.
“I am confident that their problems will receive the necessary attention from the government. They (the Indians) want their problems to be resolved, and I am sure the government will do the needful,” he added.