Government to write off RM41m housing loan owed by Bakun folk

January 15, 2011

BELAGA, Jan 15 — The federal government has agreed in principle to write off the remaining housing loan of about RM41 million owed by some 1,500 families who were relocated following the implementation of the Bakun hydroelectric dam here.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the villagers, who are now occupying the Sungai Asap resettlement scheme, had a strong basis to be given such assistance.

Speaking at a meet-the-people session at the Uma Belor longhouse at the scheme, he said the villagers had sacrificed their ancestral land, allowing the Bakun project to go on after it was halted between 1997 and 1998.

He said the villagers had yet to enjoy the benefit from the project, with most of them having no fixed income.

“We sympathised with them and will identify suitable measures to help them,” he said.

Earlier, Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the total loan was RM82 million and that the state government had agreed to absorb half of it.

Najib also welcome Taib’s proposal to expand the agricultural zones around the settlement as part of the measures to increase the people’s income.

The prime minister also announced a RM22 million allocation to implement projects to connect the settlement scheme to the state’s main power grid.

He also presented a cheque for RM1.14 million to the Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry as seed capital to fund the industrial training for 3,300 Dayak youths.

Najib also presented a RM900,000 contribution from 1 Malaysia Development Bhd for the construction of “rumah arau” for nine schools in Belaga, and financial assistance to 150 students from poor families in the area. — Bernama