By Zareef Muzammil
SHAH ALAM, May 8 — The state government provides free transportation to bring home 352 Selangor students from six universities across the Peninsula in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
The state government initiative includes students from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) campuses in Parit Raja and Pagoh, Johor.
It also covers Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang, Universiti Teknikal Melaka (UTeM, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Unisza) and Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK).
Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said the effort was in line with the decision of the Special Session Meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on April 28 which allowed students to return home except Sarawak.
“The transportation process is carried out with strict control of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to safeguard the students’ health through compliance of the health protocols,” he said in a statement.
He said students from the Northern zone arrived at the Selangor State Secretariat Building today while the East Coast zone will arrive on Sunday, and all were picked up by their parents to be brought home.
“Hopefully, this initiative will ease the burden of parents in Selangor who are experiencing financial difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact,” he said.
About 70,000 out of the 162,414 higher learning institution students living on campus returned to their respective homes in stages starting yesterday.
They are students from public and private universities, polytechnics as well as community colleges.
