Minister will help all Bidayuh villages get their NCR land gazette

By RIntos Mail

KUCHING: Infrastructure Development and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin has pledged to help all Bidayuh villages to have their Native Customary Rights (NCR) land gazetted by the state.

He said since 2008 the Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) and Bidayuh Graduates Association had been helping the Bidayuhs to get their NCR land documented and the villages should participate in the effort.

He said the effort was also to facilitate the survey process under a new NCR initiative by the state.

Manyin, who is the DBNA adviser, said that Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud had encouraged the association to help the Bidayuh s to carry out their own NCR documentation.

“The completion of the documentation will facilitate the Land and Survey Department in processing the NCR land titles for the villages.

“I would like to remind the Bidayuh villages to go through DBNA and not through the department,” he said at a handing over of GPS survey forms at Kampung Sudoh in Singai, Bau, yesterday.

He congratulated the villages in Singai for successfully completing the NCR land documentation process.

“After this, I and the other Bidayuh leaders in the government and DBNA will appeal to the state to gazette the NCR land of these villages,” he said.

All the villages – Kampung Apar, Tanjong Senibong, Bobak Sajong, Tanjong Bowang, Segong, Barieng, Daun, Sudoh, Tanjung Poting, Bobak Sejinjang and Atas – come under the Serapi DBNA branch.

Earlier, the DBNA Serapi branch chairman Henry Harry Jinep said that the 11 villagers had completed the documentation process on a total of 3,240ha.

“It took us eight months and cost RM430,000 to carry out the documentation,” he said.

All the villages had been cooperative and this enabled the documentation to be carried out smoothly, he added.

With the documentation, he believed there would be no disputes over the NCR land in the 11 villages.

(Source:  The Star, 20 November 2011)