Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas – File photo
KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the state will start issuing individual titles for plots of communal land starting 2020.
The process of applying and issuing individual titles will be provided for by Section 18 of the Sarawak Land (Amended) Code 2018 (SLAC 2018), which took effect on Aug 1, 2019.
“Next year we will start issuing Section 18 land titles on plots of communal land that were surveyed under Section 6 (of the SLAC 2018). So far we have around
900,000 hectares of land under Section 6,” said Uggah yesterday when clarifying a report carried by a national news portal.
Uggah, who is also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, said he clearly stated during a dinner to welcome participants of SLAC 2019 Forum here on Wednesday that Section 18 land titles will be issued on plots of communal land (surveyed under Section 6),
and not on other types of land as per reported by the news portal.
Native customary rights (NCR) land surveyed under Section 6 of the Code are communal land and do not have individual titles as it governs the process of separating Bumiputera or NCR land from state land.