PUTRAJAYA: The government has agreed in principle to the proposal of a land insurance security concept for land transactions, according to the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry.
In a statement today the ministry said that the insurance was created for land registrations to prevent fraud in the registration of property ownership.
“Since there are currently many cases of fraud and forgery of property rights, the concept of insurance security will be reviewed so that losses to the owners involved can be avoided,” the statement said.
According to the ministry, the matter was agreed to at the 75th National Land Council (NLC) meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, at Perdana Putra, here today.
NLC also agreed with the proposed amendment to the Small Estates (Distribution) Act, 1955 to increase the valuation jurisdiction of the land office from RM2 million to RM5 million, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the proposed amendment to the Act would also eliminate the requirement to own the immovable property and to allow inheritance applications to be filed at any land office in the state where the immovable property is located.
“This amendment will make it easier for the people to file an inheritance application and then resolve the issue of inheritance among the heirs,” the ministry said.
NLC also fully agrees with the proposal of Electronic Submission and Registration concept, this will enable all future submission and registration matters to be made at the land office counters as well as online.
“This is in line with the government’s aim of improving public service delivery and facilitating land dealings throughout the country,“ the ministry said.
NLC also agreed with the proposed amendment to the National Land Code to issue rock material permits which would, among other things, give land administrators more power to stop the production of rock materials that damage the ecosystem.
According to the ministry, reviews from technical departments were made mandatory prior to the issuance of rock material permits.
“This can control environmental damage due to excessive rock aggregates production operations,” it said.
NLC also agreed that the state governments maintain the gazetted forest water catchment areas stretching 327,723.7 hectares (ha).
The ministry said there were three states that had yet to complete the gazetting, namely, Johor, Perak and Penang with an ungazetted water catchment area of 56,368.7 ha.
“The purpose of gazetting is to keep our country’s water and forest resources from being encroached upon and turned into development areas,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Dr Wan Azizah at the meeting emphasised the importance of gazetting forest water catchment areas and had called on the state governments to take immediate action for fear that the areas would be affected by development which would endanger the country’s forest and water resources. - Bernama
