Compiled by C. ARUNO, ARFA YUNUS and R. ARAVINTHAN
A GROUP of former plantation workers from Sungai Siput, Perak, held a peaceful demonstration in front of the state government office for allegedly not getting the land they were promised, Malaysia Nanban reported.
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) central working committee member and land action committee chairman R. Karthik said 39 workers from Ladang Kamiri and Ladang Changkat Salak were promised lots on a 1.6ha plot.
RM340,000 in compensation given to 34 of the workers was handed over to the land office to gazette the land and obtain the deeds, he said.
“However, 12 years later, the former workers and their families are still awaiting the land,” he said.
Meanwhile, the workers learnt that the land office had approved the construction of low-cost housing on the land and they have to pay RM50,000 for a unit.
The workers and their families demanded that they be given the land as promised so that they could build their own homes, Karthik was quoted as saying.
“The matter has been highlighted to the state government and the land office but there has been no action to date, leading to their peaceful demonstration,” he said.
The above articles are 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 a >, it denotes a separate news item.
