KUALA BESUT, Sept 8 — The government received a total of 65,898 applications for the second phase of the PerantiSiswa Keluarga Malaysia tablets within a month since it was opened on August 1.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad said of the total, 45,341 applications had been approved while 20,557 applications were being processed.

"We have a total of 1.6 million students including more than 300,000 students who are from the B40 group. So we urge eligible students who have yet to apply to do so because we have until September 30 for the application process,” she said.

She spoke to reporters after opening the academic and administrative building of the Al-Wathiqu Billah Library, Taman Rimba Ilmu Tanah Bris (Tribe) and Agropreneur Incubator Park (AIP) at Besut Campus of the Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) here today.

In Terengganu, she said a total of 3,156 applications had been approved and 150 UniSZA students were the first group to receive the tablets in the state today.

Meanwhile, Noraini said the ministry is constantly monitoring the cafeterias in every public universities to ensure the quality and quantity of meal for the Keluarga Malaysia Menu programme.

"The government has also given a moratorium on rent payments for six months to operators and food service providers from last July, so they should be able to provide right quantity of food to students,” she added. — Bernama