Land Bureau to solve ownership of land - Dompok

RANAU : The problem surrounding the application and ownership of land in this district will be solved gradually with the setting up of a Land Bureau by the UPKO youth movement here.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the body would act as a mediator between land applicants and the land department.

It would help solve matters pertaining especially to delayed land application processing either on the side of the land applicants or the relevant government agencies, he said at the launch of the bureau at Kg Kaingaran, some 70 km from here on Saturday.

“The ownership of land is indeed a very important task for us to handle as it acts as a determining factor on how we can improve life in the remote villages. To own land is to have a source of income especially when it is utilised for agricultural activities, paving the way for the alleviation of poverty. This is why I have agreed with the idea of our concerned young leaders to form this land bureau.”

The UPKO youth movement had informed him that many land applicants had been waiting for years to get approval from the department concerned and expressed their wish to have the monitoring body set up to help ease the burden of the people, he said.

Dompok who is also Member of Parliament for Ranau admitted it is not easy to settle land applications in a short period and this had caused a backlog of applications. The process can take a few years, just as with land surveying and granting of titles, he said.

“I am very aware of this problem and the frustration of those involved because I was an assessment officer with the land department before I became a politician. The assessment of any land application takes time to process as it needs to be looked into from all aspects.”

The UPKO president said he had urged officers from the land department to get the land applied by the villagers surveyed and issued with titles, and they had agreed to help settle the problem.

He said there were more than 7,000 plantation areas that needed to be surveyed but the lack of surveyors and the high cost of sending them to the remote areas had caused the delay.

In the Ninth Malaysia Plan, he said, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that the rural areas in Sabah needed to be developed on par with the rest of the country, and that farmers did not need to be poor, as they had all the opportunity to earn a high income in the plantation sector, especially with the increase in the prices of rubber and palm oil.

Dompok said if the land problem is not settled, the rural people cannot respond to the Prime Minister’s poverty alleviation plans for them.

“That is why as an assemblyman I have approached the Ministry of Rural Development to look for new ways to ensure the rural areas can be developed and we can alleviate poverty,” he said.

Following the meeting, he added, the ministry had granted a RM1 million allocation to carry out research in Ranau on the basic amenities needed to help develop the district.

He hoped the effective strategy used to develop other regions in the peninsula like Johor, Kelantan and Penang among others could be applied in the state.

Speaking earlier, bureau chairman Japirin Sahadi said the mediating body aims to find the reason behind the failure of the land applicants to get approval, help them to get land ownership and if possible get the intervention of the relevant assemblymen.

“We will also help them to develop their land through the many opportunities provided by the government and the private sector,” he added.

Also present at the launch was Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Ewon Ebin.