SIBU (Oct 1): A total of 768 individual land titles under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code (SLA) were issued to 574 landowners from the Tamin constituency here yesterday.

The recipients were from Sebindang Oya, Igu Tamin, Pasai Siong, Tebalang/Batang Penyudah, and Batang Oya, which involved a total of 2,055 hectares.

Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan presented the documents together with communal land gazettes under Section 6 of the SLA to 26 recipients in four areas covering 413 hectares under Nangka constituency, as well as 248 hectares under Bawang Assan constituency

In his speech, Awang Tengah said the state government will continue to survey Native Customary Rights (NCR) land under the New Initiative Programme, so as to guarantee the people’s rights.

According to him, since the programme’s implementation in 2010 until now, the state government has surveyed nearly 1.2 million hectares and gazetted more than 900,000 hectares.

“The survey is free; the landowner merely needs to show valid proof of their ownership, as according to the law. This initiative proves that the government is committed to help the people achieve acknowledgement of their land ownership.

“Some of the land may be acquired for development projects, such as construction of roads, telecommunication towers, schools, and so on. However, all land acquired for development projects will be compensated accordingly,” he said.

Awang Tengah added that survey works will not be carried out on land currently in dispute in court, unless the case is resolved or withdrawn by those involved.

“Once the dispute is resolved, the landowners will need to submit a new application for their land to be surveyed.”

The ceremony also saw the Deputy Premier present land titles under Section 13 of the SLA to three property developers.

Among those present were Tamin assemblyman Christopher Gira Sambang, and Sarawak Land and Survey Department acting director Ramzi Abdillah.