KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Efforts to rebuild homes in Kelantan for flood victims will not be able to start until the state government solves the issue of landlessness, a minister said today.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said those living by the river in Kelantan do not own the land on which their homes were built, which has delayed the rebuilding of the homes there.
“The problem is with the land. If the land is ready, we’ll immediately go in,” Shahidan said at Parliament today.
“We can tell the Kelantan government, solve the issue of the land immediately and we will do it quickly,” he added.
Shahidan said it is “difficult” for the rebuilding of houses in Kelantan to complete by fasting month which starts in June, but expressed hopes that work can at least begin by then.
According to the minister, 2,159 requests have been received as of March 16 to rebuild homes in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, but he said only 2,044 houses will be built, each costing RM48,000.
The recent floods that swept Kelantan, among other states, were the worst in recent decades, displacing over 200,000 Malaysians nationwide from their homes.
