AS of October 15, approximately 910,000 hectares of land have been surveyed by the state government and of these, 742,000 hectares have been gazetted.
“With this new Native Customary Rights (NCR) Land Survey Initiative, an average of 101,000 hectares of NCR land can be surveyed per year,” said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, revealing that this output was 20 times that of the former survey method.
He explained that using the former method, only 260,000 hectares of NCR land had been successfully surveyed from the 1960’s up until the new initiative was introduced in October 2010. “This is an average of only 5,200 hectares per year.”
During his ministerial winding-up speech yesterday, he stated that the new initiative was carried out in two stages, the first being perimeter surveys and gazetting under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code (SLC) as Bumiputera Communal Reserves (Agriculture).
“The second stage involves surveys of individual lots and issuance of land titles under Section 18 of SLC,” Awang Tengah said.
He stressed that allegations by certain parties that land gazetted under Section 6 of SLC was done to take back NCR land were false.
“The gazetting under Section 6 of SLC as Bumiputera communal reserves is to ensure and confirm the borders of NCR land and to put them into the land register,” said the International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development Minister.
He added that a clear boundary would facilitate the survey of individual lots for the issuance of land titles under Section 18 of SLC.
“If there are any NCR land owners who believe these allegations, they can return their land gazetted under Section 6 of SLC. To this day, not one has been returned,” he stated.
Awang Tengah disclosed that thus far, 29,558 individual lots have been surveyed, covering an area of 36,533 hectares, which have been issued with land titles under Section 18 of SLC.
He said that prior to surveying, a dialogue would be held with the NCR land claimants in order to provide explanations and get feedback before the actual field survey. “The survey can only be carried out after receiving the agreement and support of the land claimant involved.”
He emphasised that perimeter surveys are only executed based on request.
According to the Bukit Sari assemblyman, the state government has approved 467 officers of various categories to increase the capacity of the Land and Survey Department, which involves an additional expenditure of RM30 million a year on the part of the state government.
On the 2019 Budget, he remarked that only after the state government had allocated RM40 million for the NCR Land Survey Initiative had the federal government then allocated RM21.5 million for the purpose.
“However, as of October 15, only RM10.75 million has been channelled. Meanwhile, the new federal 2020 Budget presented on October 11 did not mention funds for NCR land surveys in Sarawak,” Awang Tengah highlighted.
