As planned, several NGOs representing the Indian community turned up at Komtar Walk today to protest against Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for "ignoring their plight".

Calling themselves Copingo, the acronym for Coalition of NGOs and Concerned Citizens on Indian Affairs in Penang, the group started their protest by apologising to the families of the missing MH370 passengers and crew for holding the protest today "at the time of their anguish".

They carried banners and chanted slogans on the various issues affecting the community and marched peacefully around Komtar, with police controlling traffic.

The state government offices are, however, closed on Saturdays.

At a press conference after the rally, one of the representatives V Nandakumar said the protest was held  because there is no effective mechanism to resolve the many "chronic problems” facing the Indian community in Penang.

"The representatives we have are not empowered. Listen to the various issues we raise and know for yourselves. Unless the people at large come together and speak with one voice, this state government is not going to listen.

"Let the word go around that there is now in Penang an organisation that will seriously take up issues and work towards getting true representation at the policy level," he added.

The issues pointed by the group include evictions and displaced estate workers, no land for Tamil primary schools, land for most of the 100-odd Hindu temples in Penang, faulty crematoriums and disputed burial grounds, state housing policies that exclude the Indian poor and enrich the state government, job opportunities and minimum wages and loss of ancillary income.

'Why is Ramasamy jumping?'

Asked yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy dismissed the group's allegations that Lim had ignored the community's problems.

Without condemning the protest, he said the state was working to resolve the community's plight on several fronts, including all the issues raised by Copingo.

The Penang Hindu Endowment Board chairperson, however, said Lim would not meet the group as their leader M Ganesan, had allegedly defamed him by accusing him and Ramasamy of sending thugs to disrupt a NGO meeting in November last year.

To which, Ganesan replied: "Our protest is targeted  at Lim for he is the CM, he oversees all issues in Penang. Why is Ramasamy  jumping up and down about the matter?"

Ganesan then urged the state government to establish a "one-for- one" policy, where families who are evicted from former estates are given one house, not a flat, each.

Ganesan also wants the state government to develop and implement a systematic plan to provide adequate land to all Tamil primary schools in the state.

The Non-Islamic Religious Affairs committee should establish clear ownership and management principles and processes for adequate land for Hindu temples and for systematic burial and cremation services, he added.

"The state government should take over the provision of the gas fired crematorium services for Hindus and make it a reliable and continuous service," said Ganesan, who is also Persatuan Hindraf Malaysian advisor, while speaking at the protest.

"The state government should establish a plan to relocate and provide assistance to evicting displaced estate workers who are involved in agriculture activities like cattle and vegetable farming so that their livehoods are not destroyed in the name of development," he added.

"The state government should employ more Indian youths into state government and into local councils," he stressed.