TONGOD: The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-Barisan Nasional (GRS-BN) State Government will continue to develop Sabah, including rural areas, through the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) Roadmap, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Haji Noor (pic).
He said the State Government did not want districts far from Kota Kinabalu to be backward, because rural communities in those districts also had the right to enjoy development and benefits as a result of the country’s independence.
“This is what the GRS-BN Government is doing because for us what is important is that the people get to enjoy any development and basic facilities that they should benefit,” he said, when officiating the Tongod Kaamatan Festival and groundbreaking ceremony for the Housing and Urban Development Authority (LPPB) Commercial Project at the Dataran Rakyat Tongod Open Hall, Sunday.
“This is our intention once we took over the state government in September 2020.
“The GRS-BN Government is also very committed to resolving the issue of land ownership in the state, through the submission of 611 land grants covering an area of 3,893 acres to applicants from Tongod district,” he said.
Of the total, he said 238 are state customary land titles (NT) as a result of ordinary land applications, while 373 NT lands are results of the Sabah State Customary Land Service Program (Pantas).
“On May 12, I handed over 206 NT land titles to applicants in Pitas and on Saturday (May 14) I handed over 181 titles in Telupid district.
“The State Government through the Land and Survey Department (JTU) will always work hard to carefully evaluate all land applications submitted by the people. If an application does not have any obstacles, there is no reason why the issuance of a land title for the land in question cannot be implemented,” Hajiji said.
He asked all land title recipients to cultivate their land as it can increase their income. If possible, he said, work with any relevant government agency to cultivate the land with various types of crops including oil palm.
“Based on the report on Import Export Statistics by State for March 2022 released recently, Malaysia’s palm oil exports amounted to RM7.5 billion, with Sabah recording the highest figure of RM1.8 billion or 23.5 per cent”, he added.
“Therefore, I advise the recipients of NT lands to toil the land and not to take short cut to make a profit by selling it,” he said, who also handed over a gazette of a 49.3-acre native village of Kampung Sanan which was gazetted on Oct 21, 2021, in Tongod.
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