KUCHING, April 2 — The federal Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change is still looking at a mechanism for returning of leased land in Sabah and Sarawak to the state government, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
In revealing this, he said the ministry must settle all issues related to state lands in Sabah and Sarawak.
“We are finalising the mechanism on how the land will be returned to the state government — whether to return land which the premium price has been paid or is it necessary to pay for the land based on what has been built on the land.
“This requires consultation between the federal and state government. This is one of the situations we are considering,” he said when met after a meeting with Parti Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Petra Jaya youths at Jalan Matang, Gita here last night.
The Petra Jaya MP said despite over hundreds of land handed over to the federal government that were not utilised, only three pieces of land in Sarawak and two in Sabah were identified to be returned to the state government.
“We have identified the land — so far, for Sarawak, there are only three land which will be handed back to the state government while there two in Sabah. There are still hundreds of land in Sarawak that has not been developed.
“So now, they must finalise whether to return or keep the land,” he said.
Fadillah said based on the current policy, any state lands that have been leased to the federal government but not developed within five years must be returned to the state government.
Thus, he said the ministry must quickly finalise these issues before the matter can be brought up in the MA63 Implementation Action Council chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the next parliament session.
“The ministry is handling these issues, and we have asked they finalise this matter with the state government. If they want to keep the land, they must justify why the land does not need to be returned to the state government,” he said. — Borneo Post
