KOTA KINABALU: A total of 25,591 native land lots covering 33,891.181 hectares have been surveyed under the Sabah Native Land Surveying Service Programme (PANTAS) between January 2020 and June this year, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.
Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Isnin Aliasnih said PANTAS was introduced to accelerate the surveying of approved Native lands, enabling eligible applicants to obtain their land titles more efficiently.
He said 53 survey teams had been deployed to carry out land surveys throughout Sabah under the programme.
“Between January 2020 and June 2026, the PANTAS programme received RM83 million in funding from the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister’s Department.
“In 2026 alone, RM1 million was channelled to the Sabah Lands and Surveys Department for the implementation of the programme. A total of 53 survey teams have been assigned to conduct land surveys across the districts,” he said.
He was responding to an oral question from Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis (Warisan-Usukan), who sought details on the programme’s allocation and the total land area surveyed.
Replying to a supplementary question on whether the allocation was sufficient, Isnin said the funds received from the federal government were expected to support the programme’s implementation until the end of next year.
“The allocation we have received from the federal government is sufficient, as of today, to last until the end of next year.
“We still have approximately RM8 million in reserve,” he said.
Meanwhile, Isnin revealed that 26,808 land applications remained under processing at district land offices across Sabah as of June 30.
He said the state government, through the Sabah Lands and Surveys Department, is strengthening monitoring at every stage of the application process, accelerating surveys of approved land and expanding the use of modern surveying equipment and digital systems to improve efficiency.
However, he noted that the time required to process each application varies depending on factors such as the land’s status, overlapping claims, the need for investigations and technical assessments, as well as manpower constraints. – BERNAMA
