Set up hostel facilities, schools urged

TAMILNESAN reported that Deputy Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Maglin D’cruz urged Tamil schools to have hostel facilities to benefit students.

He said many Tamil schools had low enrolment because some parents were too poor to send their children to school.

He said Indian students could perform better if they had hostel facilities.

He said students in schools with hostel facilities were monitored closely and had to attend evening classes to improve themselves.

He said it would ease the financial burden on parents, and students could go back to their homes during weekends.

D’cruz said a memorandum would be handed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel on the matter.

> Malaysia Nanban reported that controversial self-styled spiritual leader Swami Nithyananda was removed on Friday as senior head of a 1,500-year-old religious organisation in Madurai.

The appointment had attracted widespread condemnation from various quarters including the Tamil Nadu Government.

Nithyananda is facing criminal charges including rape in Karnataka. His ashram near Bangalore was recently embroiled in a controversy after an American woman and others had alleged sexual exploitation which he denied.