Wong (seated sixth left) with other landowners at the meeting. Seated at fourth left is Sarawak United People’s Party Bukit Assek chairman Datuk Chieng Buong Toon, who was invited to attend.
SIBU: The Rantau Panjang Landowners’ Rights Committee is pressing the government to pay higher compensation for land in Rantau Panjang for the extension of the shipbuilding industrial estate.
Committee chairman Wong Kwong Toh said the government gazetted the 250 acres in November last year.
“The compensations offered were between RM90,000 and RM120,000 per acre, which the landowners deemed too low considering that the land is for the making of an industrial estate, not for public utilities.
“Once these agricultural lands are being converted into industrial lands, the value of the lands would go as high as RM1 million or RM2 million per acre. Which means, if the government only offers us RM100,000, it is less than 10 per cent of the value. We feel this is very unreasonable,” Wong told reporters before a landowners meeting on Thursday.
He said the landowners are expecting the compensation to be three times above the amount currently offered.