As of April 30, this year, 880,541 hectares (2,175,817 acres) of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land have been surveyed.
“From that total, 723,344 hectares (1,787,383 acres) have been gazetted in the first phase of Bumiputera Communal Reserve (Agriculture) under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code,” said Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resource Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan at the State Legislative Assembly yesterday.
In the second phase, as of now, 26,036 individual lots comprising 32,376 hectares (80,001 acres) have been successfully surveyed, in which the land titles are issued under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code.
Awang Tengah, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, said RM161 mln had been allocated for the purpose in the previous year’s budget.
“However, the allocation for the programme in the federal budget for this year was not specifically stated, therefore, the state government had approved RM40 mln for surveying NCR land this year.
“Perhaps the federal government is under pressure as it has now announced an allocation of RM21.5 mln,” he said.
From the figure, only RM10.75 mln has been given so far.
Additionally, the state government has approved the recruitment of 467 officers to boost the Sarawak Land and Survey Department.
“The recruitment of new officers will require additional expenditure, estimated at RM30 mln per annum, to the Sarawak government.”
