LAND AND SURVEY USE OUTDATED SURVEY PLAN

AFTER a quick check on the title survey plan and road mapping of the Luyang Foh Sang shop area has shown that the Land and Survey Department did not update the details of the title survey plans and other information. The drawings are still showing the same details as far back as twenty years ago.

The Luyang State Assemblyman Hiew King Cheu strongly suggested that the Land and Survey Department should immediately take action to update all the vital information on the drawings in order not to mislead the people who need the information for their work. How can we work with a set of drawings carrying outdated information which leads to many disputes and argument?

The fact is, if in Kota Kinabalu City can have this type of outdated land and survey drawings, what will happen to other urban areas and sub-urban areas through out Sabah? The whole Land and Survey Department must be revamped or certainly some people must face the music in order for the department can be streamlined or become efficient and effective in its work. This explains why a simple task of transferring the ownership of a land title can take up to years.

The Sabah Land and Survey Department is well know for its slackness and unable to deliver speedy work done in a given time. All this is due to the management of the department. By now the department should have enough trained, experienced, and qualified staffs to handle the documentation and administrative work in the department. The computerized system has been in full use, but why it is still “feet dragging”!

There are two types of title survey plans with the department, one set is the imperial set and the other is the metric set. It is confusing and caused a lot of headaches among the people who are making use of it. The calculation on the conversion from imperial to metric unit of measurement always created error and brought disputes.

Just looking at the case in Foh Sang and Bornion shops area, it has presented a true picture on how badly the Land and Survey Department had done a mess-up job here. This is because the land, the roads, and the development are still marked as some 20 over years ago.

There is no amendment, updating and even the lands which had been officially acquired, were not shown in the drawings. The existing road systems and its reserves are no way near to what is shown on the Land and Survey title survey plans.

Hiew said, the people asked the same question on how come the Land and Survey Department couldn’t update all these drawings to its latest status and to precisely mark out the details as on site. The technology nowadays is so advance and accurate, we don’t see why these drawing can’t be done up. The satellite image and with the Global Positioning System (GPS), it can provide the department with speedy up dating and marking out of any area they want. We don’t understand why we are still dragging behind.

It is time that the Sabah State Government should do something immediately and positive to revamp the Land and Survey Department, and to give the people some benefits and convenience in their work and well beings.