Baru Bian
KUCHING: A federal government grant of RM21.5 million will be used specifically for the survey of native customary rights (NCR) land under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code (SLC) this year.
Works Minister Baru Bian said the grant comes from the RM40 million allocated by the federal government in 2019 for a special programme focused on Sarawak’s Bumiputera.
“My stand and the stand of Pakatan Harapan Sarawak on this issue has not changed as alleged and viralled on social media,” he said in a statement received here yesterday.
“At the first Mesyuarat Majlis Tindakan Negeri for 2019 at the Sarawak Development Office in Kuching on March 18, which I chaired, I made it very clear that the RM21.5 million grant would be used to survey individual titles under Section 18 and not for perimeter survey under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code.”
Baru, who is also Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak chairman, said it had come to his attention that a report was being viralled on
social media stating that he had changed his stand in favour of perimeter surveys under Section 6.
He said it was the previous federal government’s funding of perimeter survey which was used to survey NCR lands under Section 6, but now things are about to change under Pakatan Harapan.