Awang Tengah (second left) witnesses a land owner accepting his land title during the event in Bekenu. Also on stage are (from left) Ripin, Unus and Rosey.
MIRI (Oct 4): The Sarawak government’s commitment to the people, under the leadership of Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, is ‘not seasonal’, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan has stressed.
In this respect, he said the state government had always been committed to defending the rights of the owners of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land.
However, he also pointed out that all claims pertaining to NCR land must be legally valid.
In this regard, he said the Land and Survey Department had reinforced its manpower to better facilitate all the surveying works and had also set aside allocations meant to have these works be done.
“This is an ongoing effort, but like other sectors, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the NCR land surveys have also been affected.
“Once the situation improves and activities are opening in stages, we would step up all efforts to help the people to survey their NCR land, either for perimeter survey under Section 6 of Sarawak Land Code, or individual lot survey under Section 18 of the same Code,” said Awang Tengah after having handed over 362 land title documents to 265 NCR land owners from Kampung Nusah Ulu Sataap and Kampung Sebalik Tiris in Bekenu yesterday.
The deputy chief minister also called upon the people to always work together with the government in ensuring that their NCR land would be protected.
He pointed out that the NCR land surveying works had been carried out since the 1960s and from then until 2010, a total of 260,000 hectares (or 642,460 acres) of NCR land had been surveyed.
“In view of all the government’s efforts being not seasonal and its commitment towards defending the rights of the people owning NCR land, it introduced the new NCR land survey initiative in 2010, which then was carried out in two stages – first with the perimeter survey under Section 6 of Sarawak Land Code, followed by individual lot survey under Section 18 of the same Code.
“From 2010 until now, the Land and Survey Department has carried out perimeter survey works on 999,853 hectares, or 2.47 million acres, of NCR land.
“Out of these numbers, a total of 776,226 hectares, or 1.9 million acres, have been gazetted – proving that the new NCR initiative is more efficient (than the previous method),” he said.
On individual lot surveys, Awang Tengah said a total of 46,346 lots had been covered so far involving 55,970 hectares (138,305 acres), of which the land titles would be issued under Section 18 of Sarawak Land Code.
Earlier, Land and Survey Miri officer Anthony Aboi said 362 land owners from Kampung Nusah Ulu Satap and Kampung Sebalik Tiris received their individual land title documents, issued under Section 18 of the Code.
“However, due to the Covid-19’s SOP (standard operating procedures), only 50 of them receive their land titles today (yesterday), while the remaining (land title documents) would be handed over to the others after the function,” he said.
Anthony also said his office had received applications from owners in 286 areas involving 226,932 hectares of NCR land.
“They want their NCR land to be surveyed under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code.
“Meanwhile, 69 areas (of owners) have had their applications for perimeter survey approved; 40 areas are ready to be surveyed; 28 areas have been gazetted; and (approvals for) 24 areas are still pending due to disputes,” he elaborated.
As for individual lot surveying works, Anthony said his office received applications from 28 areas, with 19 having been approved.
Eleven areas, he said, were ready to be surveyed under the Section 18 of the Code, while 1,460 lots had been registered.
“A total of 996 lots have been handed over to the landowners, while the handing-over of 646 lots is still pending,” he added.
Assistant Minister of Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Rosey Yunus who is Bekenu assemblywoman, Lambir assemblyman Ripin Lamat, Miri Resident Abdul Aziz Yusuf and Land and Survey Department assistant director Unus Tambi were also present at the event yesterday.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3mj9tCN
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