IPOH, Oct 17 — The Perak state government has ordered the Land and District Office (LDO) to monitor illegal land encroachment in Kampung Baru Kuala Bikam.
State health, consumers affairs, civil society, national integration and human resource committee chairman A. Sivanesan said the order came after close to 40 farmers from Kampung Baru Kuala Bikam held a peaceful demonstration in front of the State Secretariat Building yesterday urging authorities to solve the sand mining issues.
“It was claimed that over 600 farmers were affected due to the sand mining issue in that area, but based on our investigation we found out that only 30 of the residents are farmers.
“The rest were duped by some syndicates to encroach the state land in the name of farming,” he said today adding that the syndicates were planting oil palm trees in the area.
The Sungkai assemblyman said the land mining issue has been happening since 2004.
“We had several discussions and I myself had brought this case to court to help the farmers to get their rights,” he said.
However, Sivanesan said the that new land mining license was approved by the previous government in 2017 and the current government need to pay compensation to the contractor if they want to stop the project.
“Last week we had a discussion with LDO and the sand mining contractor in my office, but only three representatives came on behalf of the affected farmers.
“If the farmers are genuine and really need our help then all of them have to come forward to meet us, we have no problem in giving them temporary occupational license for the purpose of farming,” he said.
Sivanesan also said strict action will be taken on the individuals who encroached the state land and only genuine farmers will be considered and allowed to carry out farming in state lands.
