BINTULU: The New Initiative Native Customary Rights (NCR) Land Measurement Programme, which was introduced by the state government in 2010, has succeeded in increasing land surveying to almost 20 times compare to the old methods.
According to Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, through this method, the state Land and Survey Department (LSD) has been able to measure 103,809 hectares of NCR land on average every year.
Apart from that, he said the department has also successfully measured the perimeter of approximately 965,285 hectares or 2.385 million acres, where of that amount, 753,456 hectares or 1.8 million acres have been gazetted.
“The Sarawak government always recognises and defend the rights of the people and their NCR land as long as the claim is legally valid.
“NCR land survey efforts have been implemented since the 1960s through programmes such as Settlement Operations, Part III Measurement of the State Land Code as well as Traditional Village Measurement.
“However, these previous methods were found to be less efficient because in the period of about 50 years from the 1960s until 2010, only about 260,000 hectares of NCR land were successfully surveyed.
“This means that on average, only 5,200 hectares of NCR land can be measured per year. Therefore the government introduced the New Initiative NCR Land Measurement Programme in 2010 which is implemented in two stages,” he said at an event at Bintulu Civic Centre here today.
Further elaborating, Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, said the first stage involves perimeter measurement and gazetting under Section 6 of the State Land Code as Bumiputera Communal Reserve (Agriculture), while the second stage involves individual lot measurement and issuance of land title deeds under Section 18 of the State Land Code.
At the event, he also encouraged the villagers, whose NCR land has not been measured, to submit their applications to the LSD in their respective areas.
Also present at the event were Utilities Minister Datuk Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom; Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Integrity and Ombudsman), Datuk Talib Zulpilip; Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Native Laws and Customs), Datuk John Sikie Tayai; Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Len Talif Salleh; Samalaju assemblyman Majang Renggi; Bintulu Resident Jack Aman Luat; and Bintulu Development Authority general manager Muhamad Yakub Kari.
