C Vijayan, the victim of a landslide in Cameron Highlands on Dec 30, has received aid after the incident from MIC, according to documents from the party.
 
Apart from a one-off assistance for RM1,500 right after the landslide late last year, Vijayan also received loans amounting to RM90K from two MIC entrepreneurship programmes in 2013.
 
The office of MIC president G Palanivel, who is also Cameron Highlands MP, e-mailed documents to Malaysiakini which they said showed assistance given to Vijayan, to dispute his claim that he had received no help from the party.
 
The documents from Palanivel’s office showed that the 34-year-old, who had been left homeless since his house and his mechanic shed were destroyed by the landslide, had not properly serviced the two loans he had received.
 
He received RM40,000 under the Tekun entrepreneur initiative, and another RM50,000 for his mechanic business under a Koperasi Suria programme, both in 2013, and had not serviced those loans until Dec 2014.
 
Koperasi Suria had already obtained an award for outstanding loan amount to be collected from Vijayan, of above RM 4,000, from the Cooperatives Tribunal in October last year.
 
Palanivel's office said Vijayan had paid RM700 of his installment to Koperasi Suria and has not paid any of the instalments to Tekun.
 
Meanwhile Bernama reports that the government will continue efforts to eradicate illegal crop cultivation in Cameron Highlands despite new ones cropping up.
 
Enforcement officers will dismantle the illegal crops, says Palanivel (above), who is also the Natural Resources and Environment Minister.

He was speaking to reporters after presenting aid worth RM129,000 to 80 mudslide victims in Ringlet today.
 
In the incident, five people were killed and 90 from 28 families were displaced during a mudslide in Kampung Raja on Nov 5 last year.

Palanivel said he will also discuss with the Drainage and Irrigation Department plans to deepen rivers and implement flood mitigation projects, said Bernama.