ULU BARAM: Survey of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land under the New NCR Initiative is running smoothly despite the false accusation by certain quarters that the government is grabbing land belonging to the people.

An officer with the Divisional Land and Survey Department Mohamad Asri Haji Jaya said the survey work undertaken by the department’s staff had been easy with the full cooperation from the villagers,

“Almost all the villagers, especially the NCR landowners, attended the dialogue to explain the New NCR Initiative prior the start of the perimeter survey of NCR land at Long Naha’a.

Asri revealed that two other areas that would be surveyed are the NCR land at Lio Matoh and Sungai Patah along the Batang Baram.

“These two areas will be surveyed  soon following a dialogue held with villagers from these areas earlier in the week, and we believe that the survey work will proceed smoothly as all the villagers were present to give their cooperation,” he said.

According to Asri, 1,187 residents in Lio Matoh, mostly from Kenyah/Nyurek community, have applied for their NCR land of about 1,095 hectares to be surveyed.

The 9,346 hectares of NCR land in Sungai Patah are owned by 1,455 residents who are mostly from the Kenyah community.

“The Land and Survey Department will always discuss and receive feedback from the NCR landowners in the process of implementing the New NCR Initiative.

“Communication with all levels of the community is very important so as to give opportunity to the people to express their views as well as getting feedback from them,” said Asri.

Meanwhile, all complaints and problems relating to the New NCR Initiative can be channeled to the department which is always working together with the community leaders to resolve any issue or problem.

To ensure that the New NCDR Initiative could be implemented successfully, all landowners need to cooperation with the department during the surveying process.

One way to cooperate is to assist the surveyors to identify the boundaries as this will make the surveying work faster.

NCR land areas that have been surveyed will be gazette as Bumiputera Communal Reserve under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code. The original title will be kept by the Lands and Survey Department and the District Office while copies will be given to community leaders in the area as proof that the land had been surveyed and owned by the community.

Perimeter survey of NCR land will continue until the end of the 10^th Malaysia Plan.

The main objective of the New NCR Initiative is to ensure that all NCR land in the area would be surveyed and land titles issued to protect the rights of the NCR landowners in the state.

(Source: New Sarawak Tribune, 11 July 2011)