BETONG (Sarawak) — The federal government will allocate RM30 million to continue with the Bumiputera customary rights land perimeter survey in Sarawak next year, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, here, today.
He said the government had before this, allocated 60 million for native customary rights (NCR) land survey in the state to determine the ownership of the land.
“The amount (already allocated) has to be increased next year and in 2015 for 680,000 hectares of such land in the state to be surveyed,” he said in his speech at the Gawai Dayak celebration at the Wilson Begat Bakir longhouse in Penom, Ulu Paku, here,
He said the NCR land perimeter survey was among the pledges in the Barisan Nasional manifesto in Sarawak for the 13th general election (GE13) that would be fulfilled.
“In the recent elections, the indigenous and rural communities in Sarawak had been instrumental to BN’s victory,” he said.
Najib said the solid support shown by the indigenous and rural communities of Sarawak in the GE13 would not be made futile by the BN government.
He said as a first step in appreciation of that support, he decided to appoint more members of Parliament from Sarawak to the federal cabinet.
“Before this, there was never in the history of the nation that seven MPs from Sarawak were included in the federal cabinet.”
He said prosperity in Sarawak would not only be confined to the urban areas but the efforts would even be intensified in the rural areas.
“We will ensure that development in this country is fairly distributed,” he said.
Earlier, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas in his speech said the prime minister’s transformation programme had benefited the rural people a lot.
He said the giving of the aid, Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M), and the rural transformation programme had managed to lighten the burden of the people, besides improving facilities, particularly in the rural areas.
“We are confident that Datuk Seri Najib is capable of taking this country to greater heights and bringing more development so that tomorrow will be even better for us than today,” he added.
The prime minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu and several federal and state cabinet ministers were also present at the celebration.
Najib’s visit here was part of his Gawai Dayak celebration programme in Sarawak where he also stopped at a longhouse in Pakan, Sarikei and another in Selangau, Sibu.
