Simunjan villagers wonder why perimeter-surveyed land given to company for logging

KUCHING (July 12): The people of Kampung Kedumpai, Ulu Sebuyau in Simunjan are unhappy with the logging activities on the land in the village which supposedly has undergone a perimeter survey by a government agency.

They want to know why the government agency which had undertaken a perimeter survey Under Section 16 of the Land Code on about 3,000 hectares of the NCR land had given a licence to a logging company to extract timber from the said land.

“We can’t understand why the government has done a perimeter survey and yet given a licence to a company to carry out logging activities on the land which is supposed to belong to our village.

“We have reported the matter to government agencies and even approached the Balai Ringin people’s representative Datuk Snowdan Lawan but until now we have yet to get a clear answer,” a Village Security and Development Committee (JKKK) member, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Borneo Post yesterday.

According to him, this matter was reported by a local Malay paper (Utusan Sarawak) on June 17 last year after village headmen Tuai Rumah Sulaiman and Tuai Rumah Rayang made police reports on the alleged illegal logging activities that happened in Sungai Munong, Kedumpai in May.

“The logging activities have not stopped and more than 1,000 trees have been cut down and more recently, the logging company had started to ‘quietly’ transport the logs out of the area at night through an oil palm plantation road through the nearby village.

“We have also gone to the logging site several times to ask the company to stop the logging activities but to no avail.

“We want a stop to the logging activities and the government to intervene in this matter. The logging activities have also affected the environment,” added the committee member.

There are more than 300 people staying in Kampung Kedumpai.