PENAMPANG: Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick chaired a special meeting to address issues with land ownership and village gazettes in three villages here.
The area, according to the Penampang Member of Parliament, included Kg Sugud, Kg Togudon, and Kg Babagon.
The Padang Ragut Reserve Land in the village should be turned to a village land reserve, according to the locals of Kg. Sugud and Kg. Babagon.
While Kg. Togudon residents are asking for the land grant ownership problem to be handled,” he said during the Special Meeting he presided over on Wednesday at the District Office here.
Also present were Penampang District Officer Francis Chong, officials from the Land and Survey Department, Land Revenue Office, Environmental Protection Department, Water Department, Agriculture Department and the Village Chiefs.
Ewon said he had requested permission for land surveying through the Sabah Native Land Services (Pantas) programme in Kg. Togudon in a letter to the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor last December, and that he had obtained a favourable response.
There are no objections to land surveying through the Pantas Programme, according to the Chief Minister’s message to the director of the Sabah Land and Survey Department, he added.
He said the Kg. Sugud land issue was brought up at a November 2022 meeting of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly.
“At the last State Assembly meeting, I proposed that the grazing land reserve in Kg. Sugud be changed to a village land reserve, because this was the request of the villagers who have land reserves that are no longer being used.
“Based on the verbal answer I received, the conversion of grazing land reserves to village land reserves can be requested by writing a letter to the State Secretary,” he said.
Ewon said that the residents of Kg. Babagon also requested that the grazing land reserve in the village be changed to village land because there are no more residents who cultivate livestock.
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