SPECIAL Tasks Minister Datuk Teo Chee Kang yesterday said that the Forestry Department would continue to take action against settlements and houses occupied by illegal immigrants and foreigners within the forest reserves.
This include destroying their houses and plants as well as carry out arrests and prosecution, he said when representing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman in the winding up the 2016 budget yesterday.
Teo also said that the action of the Forestry Department to ban the villagers from living in the forest reserve was in accordance with the cabinet directive via a letter from the secretary of the Inland Revenue dated August 17, 1998.
However, the directive was only directed at the locals.
Teo denied allegations that the communities in Sugut had lived in the forest reserve prior to independence.
“The Sabah Forestry Department has a viable record through the satellite images and maps from the Land and Survey Department which were taken in the 1960s which indicated that no villages existed within the forest reserve at that time. Most of the alleged villages were located along the beaches and the rivers,” he said.
He also said that the government would consider the proposal made by Sugut assemblyman Datuk James Ratib to take the forest reserve out for the purpose of building a school or for setting up of a village.