Kota Kinabalu: State Community Development and People’s Well-being Minister Datuk James Ratib urged the ministry and the relevant departments to immediately resolve the long-delayed federal land gazetting issue in the State.
“I have met the Director General of Lands and Mineral (Federal) Department Sabah, Fazlina Hj Abdul Rani office and her officials. I also called officials from the State Health Department (JKNS) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) related to the problems of Federal Land in the State.
“When she briefed me, I was quite satisfied. This matter actually continued for a long time before she became the Director.
“When I look at the records, I see that there are many lands that have not yet been gazetted or given grants from the ministries,” he said after a meeting in his office, Tuesday.
James, who is also State Health Exco, said that there are several processes that complicate and hinder the publication and issuance of this grant.
“One of their problems is that all the land forms had to be sent to the Federal ministry in Kuala Lumpur before being signed by the Director in Sabah who represents the Federal Land Commission, processed and registered in the districts.
“This will take a long time because of the process that involves sending it to the ministry at the Federal level before the process for registration and then for the process of gazetting and issuing grants,” he said.
James added that in the ministry’s departments under the Ministry of Health alone, as many as 47 buildings have not yet been applied for and processed.
While 120 are lands that still have the status of PT (Land Application), and it is not known whether this status will remain until when it can be gazetted or a grant issued.
“This has taken many of years, so I request KKM or JKNS to appoint officers who have the caliber and understanding to manage land in these areas.
“ I also sympathize with the officers of the Federal Land Commissioner stationed in Sabah because first of all, they have to manage all the federal lands in Sabah even though the number of officers is not enough.
“Sometimes, officials from certain departments do not know whether they follow the instructions or not to process the lands in their department. This is actually the problem,” he said.
What is worrying, said James, is that this matter has just reached the Federal level and not yet at the State level, which is in the Land and Survey Department, and this is very difficult.
“Therefore, the KKM or JKNS should speed up the registration process of KKM/JKNS lands in Sabah.
“Remember 47 have not even been applied for so far and 120 have new PT status and this is very worrying. If there is no wake-up call, this matter will never be resolved.
Meanwhile, he also asked the government to add more officers to manage federal lands in Sabah because many officers are needed to carry out their duties.
“You know that Sabah is big and has a vast area, so it definitely needs a lot of workers to manage the federal lands,” he said.
Also present at the meeting were Assistant Director of JKPTG, Suriani Abdul Rahman, Senior Assistant Land Officer, Site Rohani Binti Hussin, Assistant Land Officer 2, Puti Sutria Ariana, Assistant Land Officer 3, Syamsul Bahari Mohd Nor and Chief Assistant Director of JKNS, Martini Binti Muhammad and Jessica Johannes Solidau.
