By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, April 5: There was a 25 per cent reduction in native customary rights (NCR) land surveyed by the Land and Survey Department last year for land under Section 6 and Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code.
Land and Survey Department director Abdullah Julaihi disclosed that the lower land size of NCR land surveyed under its new initiative as compared to the original target was due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) implemented by the federal government last year to curb the transmission of Covid-19.
He added land survey activity was affected in the first half of 2020.
“The realistic recovery plan targeted a survey of 40,000 hectares whereby the perimeter survey for 2020 recorded 40,111 hectares as compared to the original target of 53,000 hectares.
“The survey of individual lots recorded 12,000 hectares as compared to 15,000 hectares,” he said during the Land and Survey Summit held at Wisma Pelita here today.
Going forward, he said the department maintained its target of 53,000 hectares of land to be surveyed this year while doubling up the individual land lots to be surveyed to 24,000 hectares.
He said until March 15, a cumulative of 988,284 hectares of land in Sarawak had been surveyed and out of that 772,102 hectares of land had been gazetted.
He said the land which has been surveyed is ready to be developed with modern agriculture that is in line with the state’s goal to become a food exporting hub or food basket.
Besides surveying Section 6 and Section 18 of NCR land, Abdullah said the department is also responsible for land survey for infrastructure projects under the Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda), Upper Rajang Development Authority (Urda), Highland Development Agency (HDA), Integrated Samarahan Development Agency (Isda) as well as mega projects such as the Bebuling and Bukit Mabong new airports.
He disclosed that the department has completed the survey of approximately 3.8 million hectares of land in the state so far.
Abdullah said 4,645 lots of residences were approved under the Resettlement Scheme (SPS) and Village Expansion Scheme (SPK) under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) from 2016 to 2020.
He revealed that 36 out of the 54 projects have been completed while the balance of 18 projects will be continued under 12MP.
“We expect the total project of SPS and SPK to increase based on popularity and the needs,” he added.
Among those who attended the Land and Survey Summit were Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Assistant Minister of Urban Development and Resources Datu Len Talif Salleh, State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion and Urban Development and Resources permanent secretary Datu Zaidi Mahdi. — DayakDaily
