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| Abdul Karim (centre) presents a dividend payment mock cheque to Alik, as others look on. |
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| Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah stressing a point in his speech |
KOTA SAMARAHAN: Land owners in the state are advised to turn their vacant lands into profit-making ventures such as plantations or participate in government projects as beneficiaries.
Assistant Minister of Housing Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said land owners must value their land and refrain from making quick gain by selling it.
“Villagers in sub-urban and rural areas must hold on to their land or else there is nothing left for them in future,” he said at the meet-the- people session at Kampung Empila, some 30km from here, yesterday.
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| Some of the attendees |
He said the state government had in the past granted land to villagers hoping it (land) would be used as a profit-making platform.
However, as the years went by, the land, he said, were sold off to people outside the village causing most of them (land) to be left vacant and undeveloped.
“They are what I call ‘absentee land owners’ as they are not from the village and are living in other places such as Kuching or Sibu,” said Abd Karim, who is also Asajaya assemblyman.
