SEMATAN: Landowners who are unhappy with the government’s decision to survey their land under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code can return their land title to the government.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Urban Development and Resources Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan noted there were allegations by certain parties that the lands gazetted under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code would facilitate the government to seize their NCR lands.
“If there are landowners who believe in this allegation they can return the land titles back to the government. But there has not been any title returned back to the government. In fact, the number of applicants for land surveying has increased,” Awang Tengah said at the handing-over ceremony of land titles under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code for Kampung Pueh landowners here on Wednesday.
He explained that surveying of land perimeter and gazetting it under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code was essential to determine the boundaries separating the lands of different sizes.
He assured that there was no hanky-panky in terms of the state government’s effort to issue land title to the landowners.
Awang Tengah pointed out that the wild accusations insinuating the state government was confiscating people’s land were mere political propagandas.
“Many have said that the land titles gazetted under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code is part of the state government’s trickery to seize the people’s lands.
“We are doing this on the agreements made by the owners. We even conducted dialogues before any work is carried out,” he assured.
He said Native Customary Rights (NCR) landowners who believed that the issuance of land titles was part of the state government’s plan to seize their lands were welcomed to surrender their respective land titles.
