People must get their facts right on land issues

Issues relating to land such as renewal of land lease which include premium, period of lease and automatic renewal, can easily be solved if people have interests to seek fair explanations from competent officers in the Land Survey department.  

Instead, they rather keep their doubts unanswered and get misled by irresponsible people. The opposition has been capitalizing on them to gain political mileage. Hence, there have been numerous misinterpretations and misunderstanding on such issues. Obviously, they have been making mountains out of mole hills in the case of issues relating to lands.   

Understandably, civil servants  especially those in Land and Survey department are very disappointed that such issues are constantly being exploited by  certain quarters and questioning their integrity despite the fact that they have shown facts and figures to explain the real situation. 

Generally, the people must have good understanding of various government organizations, each with their own roles and functions, to enable them to get the services that they need. 

More so now as the management gets more complicated to handle voluminous workload in development. Besides, bureaucracy can be reduced with competency of civil servants in their jobs and if members of the public know where to zoom in to get the services that they really need. 

Understandably, the government has been making conscientious efforts through the program of Sejiwa Senada and seminar on development and grass root leadership for community leaders to share information with the people in order to move in the same direction with it.

Preferably, the people regardless of their political affiliations should maintain a rapport with the government in order to benefit from its services.   They should not dwell on negative information that can make them getting further away from the network of government dealings; any negative information can put people into isolation and render them unable to get help that they need from the government.

Obviously the people need to get their facts right about issues relating to land and those about forests management. It is a fact that 70% of the State is and will forever be forested and another 14% remain as secondary forests.  

Sarawak is covered by 10.338 million hectares (103,380 km sq) of forest, which comprises 84% of the State’s total surface area and equates to 4.1 hectares (0.041 km sq) per person. 

Sarawak has a long history of forest conservation, with the Forest Department managing and conserving the State’s forest resources. The Department through collaboration with other government agencies, such Sarawak Forestry Corporation and STIDC ensures forests are maintained and preserved.

The state government is enforcing sustainable forest management policy, which means that timber harvesting is limited to particular units of land. Each unit has a plan which dictates how harvesting can be carried out, the species that can be removed, the minimum cutting diameter limits, the annual harvest area and the volume of timber allowed. The plan also sets out the penalties for damaging residual trees.

Regrettably, the residents of Kuching city do not appreciate that the development of Central Sewerage System, once completed, will make them proud and delightful with the high quality of water at Sungei Sarawak and the environment in the city as a whole.  

The present sewerage system does not provide the level of quality hygiene that is good for the livelihood especially with the growing population.  The affluent that flows from septic tanks at home goes to the main drain and finally end up polluting Sungei Sarawak 

Works are now in progress to dig underground sewage pipes that will eventually be connected to all the sewerage pipes from homes.  Later all the sewers will be treated at a central treatment plant before they get into the river.  

Understandably, the construction works now being carried out along the roads may cause some inconveniences to motorists. But the project is worth the sacrifices in building Kuching as a beautiful and livable city of the future. 

Besides, the people must learn to appreciate that they have to pay for services that they expect to come up with the higher level of styles of living in the cities. They must also appreciate that since the 70s, there have never been increases in rates though more and more services are being provided to them. 

The user pay concept may cover services like pollution control, waste disposal, transportation or any other services.  

By the year 2013, the local councils may have the machinery on the ground in order to improve their services to the people and cope with the problems of increasing population, services and maintenance at all levels. 

For example, city councils of Kuching for North and South, probably Padawan and Samarahan, which is catching up quite clearly, Bintulu, Miri and Sibu, have to pay special attention to the requirement of services and development of lots of amenities that have to be undertaken at the ground level. 

Obviously, they should develop their sufficient capability to implement most of service- oriented development projects for the people towards the year 2020 and beyond.

benuasains

 *Photos Source: 

google.com

uncleawangcapture.blogspot.com