Najib announces RM30m allocation for native customary land survey in Sarawak

BETONG (Sarawak), June 9 — The federal government will allocate RM30 million to continue the native customary rights land perimeter survey in Sarawak next year, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak here, today.

He said the government had before this allocated RM60 million for the native customary rights (NCR) land survey in the state to determine ownership of the land.

“The amount (already allocated) has to be increased next year and in 2015 for 680,000 hectares of such land in the state to be surveyed,” he said in his speech at the Gawai Dayak celebration at the Wilson Begat Bakir longhouse in Penom, Ulu Paku, here,

Najib (picture) said the NCR land perimeter survey was among the pledges in the Barisan Nasional (BN) manifesto in Sarawak for the 13th general election (GE13) that would be fulfilled.

“In the recent elections, the indigenous and rural communities in Sarawak were instrumental to BN’s victory,” he said.

Najib said the solid support shown by the indigenous and rural communities of Sarawak in GE13 would not go unrecognised by the BN government.

He said as the first step of appreciation for that support, he had decided to appoint more members of Parliament from Sarawak to the federal cabinet.

“Before this, never in the history of the nation had seven MPs from Sarawak been included in the federal Cabinet.”

He said prosperity in Sarawak would not only be confined to the urban areas but that efforts would be intensified for the rural areas.

“We will ensure that development in this country is fairly distributed,” he said. — Bernama