Plantation Workers To Share Housing Law Draft With Pm

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A group of over 100 plantation workers from all over the country plan to meet Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim this month to push for a housing scheme law.
The group called Plantation Community Support Committee said they have drafted a “Plantation Workers’ Housing Scheme Bill” and want to submit it to Anwar at Parliament this Aug 13.
“The issue of housing for plantation workers has never been addressed for the past 40 years. Every time a plantation is taken for development, its workers would be chased out.
“There has not been a single solution to this problem,” said group adviser S Arutchelvan during a press conference at PSM office in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur earlier today.
ADSAlso present was group coordinator Karthiges Rajamanickam and several representatives of plantation workers.
Last-ditch effort
Arutchelvan who is also PSM deputy chairperson, said the move is their last-ditch effort to address the problem.
He said the committee had in 2019 delivered a memorandum to the then human resources minister M Kulasegaran, and later his successor M Saravanan in 2021.
They also had a special briefing session with the Parliament Special Select Committee (Plantation) in November last year.
“However, there has been no progress whatsoever. So, the plantation workers decided to make their own draft (of the law).
“So, after we deliver this to the government, they only need to study it before tabling it in the Parliament,” he said.
According to Arutchelvan, the bill was drafted with the help of lawyers such as former Malaysian Bar chairperson Ragunath Kesavan and Gurdial Singh Nijar.
“We also gathered the opinions of NGOs, plantation associations, and other stakeholders before finalising the draft.”
Prior to this, the committee had also submitted their draft to the state governments of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah and Johor. - Mkini

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