Coalfield Estate: Once tenants now squatters

A group of workers from the Coalfield oil palm plantation in Sungai Buloh are decrying the management's tactics to 'force' them to vacate their houses.

Spokesperson Lobat Rajoo said water and electricity supply have been cut to the quarters occupied by 25 families even though negotiations are pending over the eviction order.

However, some of the workers, including Lobat's group, do not qualify for bank loans to buy the low-cost houses.

Activists and Malaysia Consumer Advisory Association president Varatharajoo Murugan, who accompanied the workers to the NUPW office, had earlier alleged that the state government has not been helpful to the group.

Selangor exco member Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who oversees estate workers' affairs, said the state has tried to intervene, even though the matter involves an industrial dispute.

Reporting by Indrani Kopal
Camera work by Maran Perianen
Voiceover by Dave Jean Kameron