Awang Tengah: Land issue ‘recycled’ by opposition every election to scare people

Awang Tengah (fourth left) seen symbolically handing over a land title deed to one of the NCR landowners in Kampung Jugan, Bau.

BAU (Dec 13): The land issue is recycled by the opposition every election to scare the people, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.

He said that claims by the opposition that the government has confiscated land is not true, and explained that there was no reason for the government to confiscate the people’s land.

Instead, the government gave land to the people through the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land measurement initiative.

“The government has been carrying out NCR land surveying work since the 1960s and until 2010, we only managed to measure 260,000 hectares of land.

“Beginning in 2010, the government launched a new NCR land surveying initiative with the first two stages of surveying perimeter under Section 6 and individually under Section 18 of the State Land Code,” he said at the handing over ceremony of land title deeds at Kampung Jugan here today.

Meanwhile, Kuching Division Land and Survey superintendent Alfian Bawi said that the number of land title deeds submitted today was 415 to 355 recipients, almost all of whom were from Kampung Jugan.

The land title handed over today was the result of land surveying work under the NCR land surveying programme for traditional villages.

“A traditional village is a village that has existed for a long time and is recognised by the government by issuing a permanent land title deed under Section 18 of the State Land Code as a residential use.

“As of Dec 10, 2021, a total of 18,412 land title deeds under Section 18 of the State Land Code have been issued to 108 villages in the Kuching division,” said Alfian.

Alfian added that in the survey, a total of 61,800 acres of land were surveyed, of which 21,830 acres were issued land titles involving 4,000 lots.

He said that in Opar alone, for the SALCRA scheme, 3,619 lots were issued involving 17,500 acres of land.

“I am confident to get to the stage of issuing Section 18 land title deeds, as it is not an easy process. I am grateful to the residents who cooperated with the survey department and team in carrying out measurements and investigations in the field,” Alfian said.

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