Members of the SEB technical team ready to board the chartered helicopter bound for Bario.
SIBU: More than 200 land owners in Kampung Bahagia Jaya, who have yet to build their houses there between the past 10 and 30 years, must do so by April next year – or risk losing these lots.
The village is a resettlement scheme managed by the Land and Survey Department in Teku here.
According to Assistant Minister of Housing and Public Health Dr Annuar Rapaee, the department has issued its final reminder letter to all the land owners concerned, urging them to build properties on their respective lots as soon as possible.
“Some of them have even had their lots for as long as 30 years, but failed to build any structure on the land and let it become vacant.
“This is too long. Also, there are owners who cannot be traced.
“If they do not build houses on their allocated lots by April, the department would take back these lots to be given to qualified applicants, who truly need land to build houses,” he told reporters after attending a dialogue with single mothers at the MUC Hall here on Saturday.
Dr Annuar, who is Nangka assemblyman, said such stern action would be necessary in that the department wants to open the opportunity to more people who genuinely need land to build their houses.
On another subject, he said the Sarawak government had allocated RM1 million under the Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) to repair and/or restore 63 dilapidated trading stalls at villages across the Nangka constituency.
Earlier during the dialogue’s question-answer session, Dr Annuar said the single mothers should discuss among themselves to identify the types of business that they could undertake in order to supplement their household incomes.
He also reminded the single mothers to not depend solely on government assistance throughout their lives.
He pointed out tailoring as among the trades that they could take up because of the larger marketability and high demands, especially during festive seasons.