Ipoh, Feb 9 : A senior Minister in the Malaysian State of Perak, Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir, assured that Indians interests would be taken care of even though they have no Barisan National (BN) representatives in the Legislative Assembly.

He said this after participating in the Thaipusam Festival at the Arulmigusubramania Temple in Gunung Cheroh on Sunday.

Gombak, Feb 9 : Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) President S. Samy Vellu will meet Chief Secretary Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan on February 13 to finalise an agreement to increase the proportion of Indians in public service from 4.5 per cent to 8 per cent this year.

Talking to reporters after attending the Thaipusam celebrations at Batu Caves on Sunday Samy saidvthat 50 new Tamil schools costing RM80mil would be built in the country this year.

Kuala Lumpur - Hundreds of thousands of devotees celebrated the Hindu festival of Thaipusam on Sunday, gathering at a unique cave temple to seek divine blessings
and fulfil their pledges to the gods.

Devotees and tourists alike gathered at Batu Caves, a Hindu temple located near Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, from the early morning to celebrate the richly colourful
festival.

The central figure of the festival is Murugan, the Hindu god of war, who was the son of the goddess Shiva.

Devotees pierced with skewers and hooks through their cheeks, tongues and brows, chanted and danced as a form of offering to Lord Murugan.

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 7 : ISA detainee P. Uthayakumar's Wife S. Indradevi has lodged a police report alleging that Uthaya was not been given a proper treatment despite permission by the Session Court allowing him to take diabetes treatment.

Her mother-in-law G. Kalaivani, lawyer N. Surendren and Kapar MP K. Manikavasagam accompanied her to the police station, The Star reported.

Indradevi claimed that the Kuala Lumpur Hospital doctor refused to admit her husband when he had a fever and suffered a bone fracture.

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 6 : Body samples of A. Kugan, whose custodial death had created a public uproar in Malaysia, would be sent to Australia for further analysis, said Kugan's family lawyer N. Surendran.

Surendran said Kugan's body samples, which were taken during his second post-mortem, were initially being planned to be send to Singapore but some reluctance on Singapore's part forced the family to opt for Australia, The Star reports.

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 6 : Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president S. Samy Vellu has said that the Cabinet Committee for the Development of Indians will discuss issues affecting the Indian community, including equity participation on February 23.

The news Strait Times quoted Vellu as saying that the committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, is likely to discuss MIC's proposals, including the setting-up of a mechanism to increase Indians' equity participation from the current 1.2 percent to 3 percent in 2020.