BY ALEXANDRA LORNA and JACINTHA JOLENE
KUCHING: The state government has plans to develop land lots the federal government has agreed to return, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
“Indeed, the state has its planning for the land once it is returned to Sarawak.
“Let’s say if the land was meant to build a school, but was not developed due to the location of the school being too near to the main roads, then we will take the land.
“We have development projects for each of our divisions, and the said land may be in the development area, thus we will develop the land.”
Abang Johari was speaking to reporters after attending the Sarawak Maal Hijrah celebration held at Dewan Kompleks Agama Islam here, today (July 19).
“What happened before was the federal government acquired the land to develop several federal projects but the projects could not be implemented due to some reason.
“Therefore, we requested the land be returned to us if the federal government could not make use of it. And this is what happening now,” he added.
He also said that besides the land that has been agreed to be returned, there is some land that is still under discussion by the (Malaysia Agreement 1963) MA63 Technical Committee.
On July 18, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof announced that the federal government has agreed to return 55 lots of land that had been acquired from the Sabah and Sarawak governments in accordance with MA63.
He said it involved 52 lots of land owned by Sarawak and three owned by Sabah.
