Sungai Lengan villagers claim NCR land encroachment

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LODGED: The police report.

SARIKEI: A longhouse headman from Sungai Lengan in Sibu lodged a police report here yesterday claiming encroachment into a Native Customary Rights (NCR) land in Bintangor.

Tuai Rumah Egat Kudang, in his report, alleged that the NCR land in Ulu Selukan/Senentang in Mupong, Bintangor, had been encroached by several companies.

He and several others noticed the encroachment last Sunday morning when they saw several huts sprouting up. Their suspicion was heightened by the presence of heavy machineries.

Egat said 128 people from nine longhouses in Sungai Lengan area have a stake in that piece of land which spans some 900 acres.

He stated in his police report that they were the next-of-kin of the 28 original owners who had dwelled and farmed on that land before moving to where their present longhouses stood.

“The main purpose of the report is to request the police to determine the parties involved in the encroachment and what they intend to do with our land,” Egat, who claimed to represent the 128 land owners, told The Borneo Post after he had lodged the report.

He added that he and all the fellow landowners would wait for the outcome of the police investigation before deciding on the next course of action.

One of the options is going to court, he said.