Bako Land Owners Committee presents petition to PM
KUCHING: The Bako Land Owners Committee on Thursday night presented a petition to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, to settle the compensation on their plots of land in Bako and Muara Tebas, which were acquired by the government.
According to the committee chairman Wong Kwong Toh, members of the committee had fought hard in every possible way for the compensation and felt that their voices were not heard.
He added that up until now, there was no news on the payment and last week, together with around 100 other land owners, they staged a peaceful protest in front of the Housing Ministry office at Jalan Sultan Tengah here.
Wong was speaking to members of the media at a press conference yesterday.
He later on said that the Land and Survey Department in a meeting with the committee on Sept 25 last year had agreed to paid them around RM240,000 to RM260,000 per acre as compensation for the land acquisition and had promised to pay before December 2012.
“We believe in his capacity as Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib under the ‘ People First, Performance Now’ tagline will take quick action to meet our demands,” said Wong.
Wong said the state government was not efficient as it had dragged on with the payment of compensation.
“We are not against development. What we want is our rights following the land acquisition,” he said.
Up to 300 acres of land which were acquired by the state government, were meant for the construction of Muara Tebas new township.