By Peter Boon                                                                                reporters@theborneopost.com

SIBU: An amount of RM20 million has been allocated for perimeter survey in the state this year, revealed Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing.

At the same time, he expressed his fervent hope that the state would be given sufficient allocation  next year to enable the survey to be completed expeditiously.

Asked on the amount expected to be allocated for the purpose, he said he was uncertain.

“We are given RM20 million this year and one of my wishes is that there will be allocation to complete the perimeter survey,” Masing, who is Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president told The Borneo Post.

When asked if any delay in completing the perimeter survey would spur rural voters to swing towards the opposition, he was confident that the majority were still staunch supporters of BN.

“I think regardless of what we do, certain percentage of voters will oppose and that is normal. But I believe that the majority will still be with us.

“That is why in a parliamentary democracy, when you have the majority support, you win. The way I see it, you can’t have 100 per cent support,” he noted.

Interviewed earlier after the PRS supreme council meeting on Saturday, Masing said the perimeter survey must be completed within the next six months and hoped that there would be enough funds to prevent any delay, which he said would prompt people to ask questions such as why it was stopped.

On a related matter, he said PRS was concerned that a lot of areas did not have clear division between state and NCR lands.

As a remedy to the problem, he said they would make suggestion to the authority concerned and the federal government to provide sufficient allocations for the task to be completed expeditiously.

He noted: “And this becomes a bit problematic now for a lot of NCR areas had been planted with oil palm and rubber. We will suggest to the authority concerned and the federal government to give us enough allocation so that the perimeter survey can be carried out expeditiously. Once the division is clearly identified, the rest is easy.”

(Source:  The Borneo Post, 29 October 2012)