In the latest of a series of court actions against the land authority, Palong 9 settlers seek restitution for losses suffered from an allegedly faulty choice of a contractor to clear their land.

SEREMBAN: More than 100 Felda settlers today filed a suit against the land authority over the award of a contract to clear their plantations for re-seeding.

Their decision to go to court lends credence to predictions that a landmark decision in Kelantan early last year would open the floodgates of lawsuits against Felda.

Since the Kota Baru High Court found Felda guilty of cheating the settlers of Kemahang 3 and ordered it to pay them RM11 million, there have a deluge of suits against the authority—in Kelantan, Pahang, Johor and Negeri Sembilan.

The suit filed at the High Court here today involves 113 settlers from Palong 9, a settlement scheme near Jempol. Last month, the same court decided in favour of 30 settlers from the same scheme in a similar case.

The 113 complain that Felda had appointed a contractor who paid below the market rate for the timber extracted in clearing their land.

They have named nine defendants—Felda, its manager for Palong 9, village head and Palong 9 Umno branch chief Osman Parman and six others who are members of the local Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK)

Their lawyer, T Kumar, said the Felda-appointed contractor, LBJ Global, gave only RM33,000 per settler although it had been agreed at a JKKK meeting that the minimum would be RM50,000. (Each settler owns 10 acres of plantation land.)

He said Felda and the JKKK members pressured the settlers into accepting LBJ Global's price.

Kumar is PKR's deputy secretary general.

He said the settlers demanded to see tender documents in the contract, but the Felda management refused to provide them.

The settlers are applying to the court for restitution of their losses.