615 claims on land pertaining to NCR

 

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Land and Survey Department received a total of 615 claims on land pertaining to Native Customary Rights (NCR), involving a total of 1,164 claimants over a period of 15 years, since 1997.
According to the director, Datuk Osman Jamal, from the total, 365 cases were approved, 70 rejected and 180 still remain unresolved.
“This means that the NCR issue is not a big thing as portrayed by some quarters because right now we only have a total of 180 cases still pending due to certain technicalities,” said Osman, in his briefing to senior officers of the Department of Information on land issues in Sabah, here, yesterday.
He said among the problems that arise which cause some cases to remain unresolved are because of overlapping land applications.
In the meantime, Osman denied claims by some people that the government had neglected Native Customary Rights in the administration of land.
He said until December 2012, the state government through the Department of Land and Survey had registered a total of 355,564 communal land titles throughout Sabah and of that number, 54 per cent or 192,438 titles were owned by natives.
“So if we are said to be unfair to the natives, it is not true because the natives have been given more than 50 per cent of the total number of land titles in Sabah,” he said.
In terms of area, Osman said a total of 550.987 hectares or 26.83 per cent of the 2.05 million hectares of land throughout Sabah issued with titles from the government belong to natives.
He said the government always acted fairly when considering land applications from natives.
“In their claims, the natives can choose their own lawyer to process the application and they can call any number of witnesses,” he said.
The Department of Land and Survey also allows unsuccessful applicants to appeal within 30 days after decisions are made or refer the case straight to court if they are dissatisfied with the government’s decision.
He said the department strives to expedite the application process so that more land can be approved to natives.
Among the measures taken is the implementation of the NCR Fast Mobile Unit to resolve NCR land issues especially in the interior.
He said the mobile unit to be launched next month will be equipped with the basic office facilities to facilitate natives in referring any problems they may have with their land applications.