By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Nov 11: The Sarawak government has allocated RM40 million this year to accelerate the surveying of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land across the State, Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said.
A total of 467 new staff members have also been recruited to expedite the process.
According to a Sarawak Public Communications Unit (UKAS) report, Awang Tengah said the additional funding and manpower were crucial to ensuring smoother survey operations and speeding up the issuance of land title certificates to eligible landowners.
Since the introduction of the New NCR Land Survey Programme in 2010, approximately 1.249 million hectares (3.086 million acres) of NCR land have undergone perimeter surveys as of Oct 31, 2026, of which 979,434 hectares (about 2.42 million acres) have been gazetted.
“If we do not assist and expedite this surveying work, it will cause many problems. That is why we implemented the new initiative since 2010 to speed up the process,” he said at Handover Ceremony for NCR land gazettes, title certificates, and land compensation cheques for the Samarahan division today.
Awang Tengah also called on NCR landowners and claimants to cooperate with the Land and Survey Department Sarawak to facilitate the surveying process.
He outlined several important requirements, including obtaining landowners’ consent before surveys are conducted, with no land being surveyed without their agreement.
Landowners are also required to be present during survey work to help identify and mark their land boundaries clearly.
In addition, any existing land disputes or court cases should be resolved amicably beforehand, while adjoining landowners sharing boundaries should also be present during the surveys to prevent future disputes.
“I urge all NCR land claimants: do not wait too long. Cooperate with the Land and Survey Department Sarawak so that the survey process can be carried out faster, more systematically, and smoothly,” he added.
Also present during the event were Asajaya assemblyman Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Kota Samarahan assemblywoman Datuk Rubiah Wang, Deputy Director of the Sarawak State Development Office Wan Fadillah Wan Ahmad, Deputy Director of the Land and Survey Department Sarawak Sr Rozlan Putit, Resident of the Samarahan Division, Mohamad Irwan Bahari Bujang, and Land and Survey Superintendent for the Samarahan Division, Ahmad Raslan Yaiyah. – DayakDaily
