Salcra participants to receive dividends before Gawai — Uggah
KUCHING: Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority ( Salcra) participants will have extra reason to smile as they prepare to celebrate the coming Gawai Dayak this time around.
Salcra has decided during its senior management meeting yesterday to pay the dividends before the annual harvest festival instead of after the celebration.
Deputy Chief Minister and Salcra chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas revealed that he had a meeting with Salcra’s top management and came up with the solution as most of the participants are from the Dayak community.
“Yes, we have decided in our meeting just now that the dividends will be distributed to the participants before Gawai Dayak,” Uggah told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Uggah, who is also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, has been asked to intervene as there has been a clarion call from the land development participants from Bau for the dividends to be paid before Gawai Dayak as practised in the last two years.
It is understood that Salcra normally pays the dividends to land owners twice a year; once before Gawai Dayak and the second installment will normally be paid in January.
Landowner, Ketua Kampung Sylvester Dias from Kampung Bokah, Bau, when contacted, thanked Uggah for his understanding and decisiveness in settling the issue.
“We have been told by Salcra just last week that the dividends will be paid after Gawai Dayak. This has made us anxious and worried as we have hoped for the dividend to be paid before Gawai Dayak as we need to buy stuff to celebrate the festival,” he said.
This prompted The Borneo Post to seek clarification from Uggah on the issue.
Initially Salcra had decided to give the dividends after Gawai as it hoped that the money would be used for the participants’ children’s education needs.
Dias in rebutting this said it was unfair for Salcra to withhold the dividends as they (the landowners and participants) too have the rights to the dividends.
“We may not be as highly educated as those who live in towns and cities but we know how to manage our income including the dividends received from Salcra,” he stressed.
Salcra has declared the nett proceeds for last year was RM69 million. The first nett proceed payment ( NPP) amounting to RM34.5 million was paid in December 2017 while the final NPP amounting to RM34.5 million will be paid before Gawai. The payment of NPP will benefit 14,800 eligible Salcra landowners.