Reported Widespread Illegal Clearings to D.O.Bentong

Last Wednesday [28th May] I had the opportunity to meet the District Officer of Bentong, Pahang in his office. I took that opportunity to report to him the widespread land clearing and burning of the forest around Janda Baik by illegal vegetable growers. As he has just been posted to the District, I hope he will act on my report quickly in order to put a stop to the continuing degredation of the environment in this prestine mountainous area.

I have made this special trip to Bentong to pay for my quit rent for the year and also to check on the progress of my application for the issue of final titles for my land since my land surveyor had already submitted his work to the land office Bentong in 2003. I had paid more than RM 9 thousand dollars for the survey as detremined by the Lembaga Jurukur Tanah Semenanjung Malaysia in the hope that the process would be much faster rather that waiting for the survey to be done by the Government Survey Department. Now almost 5 years later I am still waiting for the issue of the final title. I am now told that they are not able to proceed with the issue of the final title because the degazetting of the area as a former forest reserve has not been done although the qualified title of the land was issued to me in 1973. The situation is really puzzling to me. How much longer do I have to wait?

MSAbdullah.