KUCHING, June 28: Sarawak Ministry of Local Government and Housing today clarified that it had resubmitted a list of land to the federal Minister of Housing and Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin during her working visit to the state recently.
State Ministry of Local Government and Housing Permanent Secretary Bakrie Zaini, in a statement, said the 10 pieces of land belonging to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) that have been identified and earmarked earlier for affordable housing development.
It was resubmitted to the Housing Division of the federal ministry.
“This was done to avoid further confusion on the matter. In fact, the list containing the same piece of land was handed over to the minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin, during her visit to the completed PPR project at Sungai Tengah, Matang, in July last year and again in December of the same year, during a follow-up meeting led by me with the officers of the Housing Division of federal Ministry,” he said.
Bakrie, however, gave the benefit of the doubt that the records they passed to Zuraida might have been misplaced, especially when there have been many staff movement in the Housing Division during the said period.
“We will do follow-up meeting with the Housing Division of the federal ministry and expect a positive outcome from such a meeting,” he said.
Bakrie said Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian had earlier disclosed that the 10 pieces of land totalling 1,223.65 acres could host about 12,000 units of affordable houses. They are located in Kuching, Bintulu, Miri, Kapit, Sri Aman, Serian and Limbang.
Zuraida, during a working trip to Sibu on June 23, claimed that Sarawak had not given its land to her ministry for affordable housing scheme projects.
“We still have a bit of problem in Sarawak as the state government has not allocated land for us to implement the project. All other states have already identified land for such homes,” she was quoted as saying.
She hoped the state Housing Commission and Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg would respond positively to the ministry. — DayakDaily
