Special panel to deal with Federal lands issue proposed

KOTA KINABALU: State Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Minister (KPMKR) Datuk James Ratib has proposed a special committee to deal with issues relating to Federal lands in Sabah.

James said the Federal land issue has been longstanding in the state, and such a committee would be able to carry out “pemutihan” or ownership transfers on all the lands in question.

He said this special committee will allow them to identify which government lands already have grants, which are still in Land Application (PT) status, and which Federal Government buildings have not been applied for.

The State Health Exco stressed that establishing this committee is necessary so that upcoming projects can be implemented immediately.

“There is no use for assemblymen and Members of Parliament at the Federal level to ask for allocations for Sabah when the land issue has not been resolved.

“This causes all allocations unable to be resolved because the basic matters have not been satisfied and so are other utility technicalities.

“We want there to be a coordination in Sabah to solve these basic issues,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

James hopes that in these two years, issues regarding lands in Sabah can be resolved so that there are no more unclaimed lands or lands with PT status.

He said this is so that the projects given from the Federal side to Sabah can be implemented immediately.

James informed that a total of 47 Federal land sites in Sabah have not been applied for, while 120 already have PT and 219 have registered ownership.

Therefore, he urged the relevant ministries and departments to immediately resolve the Federal land gazetting issue which has been delayed for a long time in the state.

“I had a meeting with the Director General of Lands and Mines Department (JKPTG), Sabah State Health Department and the Ministry of Health to discuss the Federal land issue in Sabah.

“When I took a look at the records shown, I saw that there are many lands that have not yet been gazetted or granted grants from the ministries.

“There are a number of processes that complicate and hinder the publication and issuance of the grant such as the land forms that have to be sent to the Federal ministry in Kuala Lumpur before being signed by the Sabah JKPTG director who represents the Federal Land Commission, processed and registered in the districts – so this will take a long time,” he said.