KUCHING: The Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) has been urged to provide assistance to its community to expedite the surveying process for Native-Customary Rights (NCR) land.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said that expediting the surveying process would facilitate the prompt issuance of land ownership letters to the community.
“This is already the commitment of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to give land ownership letters to the people, and I hope that SDNU can study this matter with DBNA (Dayak Bidayuh National Association) because SDNU has 49 active branches with a total of 35,000 members.
“So with the involvement of SDNU it can help speed up the land ownership process,” he said in his speech when attending the SDNU Pre-Christmas Dinner at PCC Demak here last night (Dec 15).
Commenting further, Uggah said the state government led by Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has often touched on carbon trading, and highlighted that SDNU can play a part in carbon trading as well.
“This is the commitment of the GPS government to recognise the NCR land according to our land code. Probably some of our NCR land can participate in this (carbon trading), but before we participate we must examine and identify who owns the land.
“In order to avoid future disagreements, it is good that we start the survey work and SDNU can play a part with its 49 active and 35,000 members,” he said.
In his address, he also said SDNU can play its role as a viable partner of the GPS government, particularly in disseminating information on the development policies and providing guidance to grassroot areas.
For the record, as of October 31, a total of 77,954 individual lots have been successfully surveyed involving an area of 94,979 hectares or 234,693 acres for which land title deeds have been and will be issued under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code.
