Ministry to scrutinise memorandum on rising cost of living of MARA students

PUTRAJAYA: The memorandum on the rising cost of living faced by Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) scholars in the United Kingdom (UK) will be scrutinised, said the Rural Development Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.

Mahdzir received the memorandum prepared by the UK and Ireland UMNO Club from its chairman Muhammad Iman Irfan Yahya in London yesterday.

He is on a seven-day working visit to the UK which started on Friday.

In a statement issued here today, Mahdzir said the memorandum was prepared through a special study involving 400 respondents consisting of students sponsored by MARA and other agencies.

"The 30-page memorandum will be brought to the top management of the ministry and MARA for scrutiny," he said.

Muhammad Iman Irfan said they spent about two months preparing the memorandum which also contains suggestions for review at the ministry level.

He said the allowance rates provided to MARA students overseas should be raised as they had not been increased for the past 12 years, adding that the rising cost of living is burdening these students and disrupting their focus as most of them are from the B40 group.

He said due to this, the students were forced to find part-time employment.

The memorandum was also handed over to the ministry's secretary-general Datuk Ramlan Harun and MARA director-general Datuk Azhar Abdul Manaf.

In the same statement, Azhar said MARA took the content of the memorandum seriously as it wants to look after the welfare of its sponsored students, adding that MARA will use the memorandum as part of its data to review existing living allowances provided to its scholars.

"We will also use it for us to complete the working paper to be submitted to the government to consider our application to revise the allowance rates provided to the students," he said.

-- BERNAMA