By Tania Lam & Nur Ashikin Louis
NATIVE Customary Rights (NCR) land surveyed and gazetted under Section 6 of Sarawak Land Code (SLC) will not become State land, assured State Legislative Assembly (DUN) deputy speaker Gerawat Gala.
He stressed that Section 6 of the SLC will only facilitate the application for land titles under Section 18 to which he noted a total of 29,558 grants have been issued since the new NCR Land Survey initiative was introduced in Oct 2010.
He quoted Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan’s announcement in his winding up speech at the DUN sitting recently that 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.
“The total number of land titles issued is the best proof that the lands surveyed and gazetted under Section 6 did not become state land. If it does, how can the Land and Survey Department manage to issue almost 30,000 grants under Section 18?” he questioned.
He was addressing allegations by certain parties who claimed that the land gazetted under Section 6 will become state land when speaking during the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) Convention at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here, yesterday.
He explained that the grant under Section 18 can only be issued on NCR land. However, if the state government decided to take certain land, the grant will be issued under Section 13 instead.
“Thus, if there are allegations made saying that the perimeter surveyed under Section 6 are for state land, the Land and Survey Department will issue grant under Section 13, which is used to apply for alienation of state land,” he explained.
“The NCR land cannot automatically belong to the state government because we have processes in the SLC to extinguish the NCR and compensation will be paid before the land can be given to the government. Until then, the NCR rights remain valid.”
He reiterated, “Section 18 applies only for titles to be issued in respect of NCR land. So if people alleged that after Section 6 perimeter survey, the statement that the NCR land will become state land ― is wrong.”
Gerawat also noted that the Land and Survey Department has paid compensation totalling RM37,645,642 to take over any land in the communal reserves which have been gazetted under Section 6.
