IPOH: A total of 7,872.71 hectares of land, or 0.38 per cent of the 2.09 million hectares of land in Perak, has been encroached upon for various illegal activities, the state legislative assembly was told today.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said 7,307.59 hectares or 92.82 per cent of the land was encroached for agriculture activities.
“It was reported that 400.09 hectares of land was used illegally for farming and industry while the remaining 165.03 hectares were occupied by squatters,“ he said when replying to a question from Razman Zakaria (PAS-Gunung Semanggol).
Saarani said the state government had set up a committee to resolve the problems of squatters and illegal occupation of government land.
The committee is monitoring and identifying illegal activities and squatters on land owned by the state government in addition to implementing punitive actions to combat land encroachment, he said.
He added that data analysis showed that from 2018 until last year, a total of 5,959.74 hectares of government land encroached by illegal settlers had been given to various agencies and government-owned corporations.
Of that amount, 3,930.79 hectares had been rented or leased to the settlers and 1,328.03 hectares had been planned for development, renting or leasing to illegal settlers. - Bernama
