MIC president Tan Sri S A Vigneswaran has promised to donate half a million ringgit for the construction of a new hall at the Kulai Sri Saraswathi temple, Makkal Osai reported.

       He made the announcement during the ground-breaking ceremony at the temple in Johor.

       Temple chairman S. Suppiah said the construction of the hall was expected to cost around RM1.6mil.

       He said the state government had allocated half a million ringgit and the temple would raise the remaining amount.

       The temple, which was initially built on railway land, has served the Kulai Indian community for 40 years.

       Vigneswaran said having a hall would help the community organise their functions and bring some income to the temple.

       During the event, he also contributed RM5,000 to the Sri Samgeetha music troupe which performed at the ceremony.

       > A young vandal in Tamil Nadu who broke a bus window was made to write Thirukkural verses as punishment, the daily also reported.

       The youth was arrested by the police after he threw a rock at a public bus, shattering the window.

       Luckily, no one in the bus was injured.

       During questioning, it was found that the vandal was a Class 12 (Form 6 equivalent) student.

       He admitted to the act adding that it was done at the spur of the moment and apologised.

       The police decided to give the boy the benefit of the doubt and did not charge him.

       Instead, he was asked to write out verses from the ancient book as punishment and sent home with a stern warning not to repeat such an impulsive act.

       ● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.