VILLAGERS URGE GOVT TO SPEED UP ISSUANCE OF LAND TITLES

Villagers urge govt to speed up issuance of land titles

23rd March, 2011 RANAU: Kampung Luanti Baru villagers here are urging the government to speed up the issuance of land titles which has been pending for ten years.

Village chief Rosliah Majangki said they submitted their land application in the late 1990s for the 250 hectares land they have been occupying since the 1960’s. She said the land had been surveyed by the Land and Survey Department in 2000.

But villagers were left puzzled when the same land was surveyed again by the department in that same year, allegedly for another group of applicants.

“In the same year, the land was again surveyed by the Land and Survey for another group of applicants which had resulted in a lot of confusion as to who applied for the land first,” she said.

According to her, the villagers had spoken to the Land office and the District Office on the matter and were told to wait and be patient.

“It has been 10 years since we were told to relax and be patient. We can no longer tolerate this delay,” she said adding that they had been given many excuses when they approached the Land Office including that the machine used to print the land title was out of order.

Rosliah also claimed that the other faction had sold the land application receipt to a third party which compounded the problems. She claimed that the third person is now developing the land.

“This is very depressing for us as the person concerned had ‘sold’ the land right under our nose to a party without our knowledge. The third party has since bulldozed our orchard and spoiled the land to make way for an oil palm plantation,” she lamented.

She asserted that the 400-odd residents in the village are the original inhabitants of that area and were the first one to apply for the land.

“What we don’t understand now is that the land had been surveyed twice” she said, demanding an explanation from the department.

She also urged the relevant authorities to look into the matter especially the elected representatives from that area.

She said a police report had been lodged concerning their bulldozed land and destruction of their orchard.

“Now, we want the relevant authorities to evaluate the damages and order the culprit to compensate us for the losses,” she demanded.

According to her, the fruits trees were planted a long time ago with seedlings acquired from the Agriculture Department.