PETALING JAYA: Selangor exco Dr Xavier Jeyakumar's plan to assist 400 estate workers in Taman Permata, Dengkil, by getting them land to build terrace houses has failed to excite Malaysia Consumer Advisory Association (MCAA) president M Varatharajoo.
Yesterday, a Tamil daily reported that Jeyakumar had promised to get land for the estate workers soon in order to get Putrajaya Holdings Bhd to build terrace houses for them as promised 11 years ago.
However, Varatharajoo said the exco made the same promise to the former estate workers in Coalfields, Sungai Buloh, in June 2008 but nothing had come out of it.
“He promised to get them 10-acres but backtracked on his words later. Now he is making another promise to a different group of estate workers,” he said.
Last month, FMT reported on the plight of the Coalfieds estate workers who were told to vacate their houses for a development project.
The families had since stood their ground, urging their former employer Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd to offer adequate compensation such as housing discount, lay-off benefits and yearly service benefits.
Meanwhile, Varatharajoo also criticised Jeyakumar for allegedly neglecting the families in Coalfields, claiming that the exco did not even check on their well-being.
“He is in charge of plantation workers in Selangor but till today he never visited them. This people are suffering without proper water supply,” he said.
He also pointed out that Coalfields estate fell under the Ijok state constituency, held by Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.
“I urge Jeyakumar and Khalid to assist those suffering in Coalfields immediately,” he said.
Jeyakumar: I have met them
Contacted later, Jeyakumar denied the allegation that he had neglected the Coalfields estate workers, claiming that he had been working on an on-going programme to assist them.
“In fact, I met the estate workers a few months back,” he said, adding that only six out of the 24 families were still unable to relocate to the townhouses provided by Kuala Lumpur-Kepong Bhd.
“Based on my figures, only six families are left. They are not able to take up the townhouses as they are blacklisted by financial institutions. We are trying to sort out the matter for them,” he said.
As for the Taman Permata workers, the exco urged Putrajaya Holdings Bhd to live up to its promise and offer them the terrace houses.
“The state government is willing to work with Putrajaya Holdings on this matter,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment