Manage land for schools, Perak govt told

REPRESENTATIVES from the current Perak government should be appointed to the board overseeing 808ha of land given to Tamil schools, Malaysia Nanban reported a group of activists as saying.

The oil palm plantation land was gazetted for Tamil schools in 2013 by then mentri besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.

Managed by a special council, with the assistance of the National Land Finance Cooperative Society, the plantation was to help provide funding for 134 Tamils schools in the state.

The activists, led by T. Nithiyandar, said the community have received no information regarding the project or its accounts since then.

As the land was supposed to serve the Tamil schools on a communal basis, the public should be informed and there should not be any attempt to turn it into a private enter- prise, he said.

The community expected more transparency by requesting representatives from the current government to be appointed to the board, he said.

> Several people in Kerala, India, were lucky to escape an elephant chasing them when the jumbo slipped and fell, Tamil Nesan reported.

The adult male elephant was spotted at one of the plantations in the hilly Munnar region, known for its tea production.

However, when the elephant entered the plantation a few days ago, several workers tried to chase it away with the help of dogs.

This angered the elephant and it began chasing them. However, it slipped and fell.

This apparently calmed the elephant down and it then made its way out of the plantation and into the adjacent forest.