BELURAN: The Kampung Ranpek Sungai Muanad Native Customary Right Land Claim Action Committee managed to settle more than half of pending land claims until hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When we started the committee in 2018, there were 150 participants involved who had not received their titles. By now 80 of them have received their titles while 70 are still pending,” said its advisor Datuk Tan Yong Gee.
“This is due to the pandemic where we were unable to conduct transactions and Land and Surverys Department personnel were unable to perform their tasks,” he said when met at the committee’s second meeting with participants at the Kampung Ranpek community hall.
According to Tan who is former Labuk Assemblyman between 1985 and 1999, the original claim started in 1985 when the 4,400-acre land was given to two peninsula-based companies by the former State Government. By that time, he said villagers had occupied and opened the land for agriculture.
He said following negotiations with the new State Cabinet then and tussles between the state and the federal governments, the State Government agreed to grant the land to the villagers.
“Two thousand and five hundred acres were put under Smallholder Scheme involving 173 lots which have been settled during my tenure as assemblyman. The rest fell under the NCR claim that are still pending.”
He said after he quit, the participants tried to get assistance from his successor but failed.
“So after nearly 20 years, I decided to form this committee to help the participants who are now senior citizens. They are really hoping to obtain the titles before they leave the world, and I am compelled to finish off what I have started,” he said, adding that he and his committee members are in constant communication with the relevant authorities, including the local Land and Surveys officers.
Thanking the Land and Survey Department Director and officers for their cooperation, he said the process was delayed due to the Movement Control Orders (MCOs) throughout the pandemic.
“Now that we have moved on to endemic, there is no more excuse to delay the process, be it on our side or the Government’s. We will go full throttle. It has been too long,” he said.
Among those present at the meeting were committee chairman who is also the village head, Jasmin Badin, and the committee secretary, Johndery Anggalong.
