| Sarawak Identifies 43 Illegal Houses Of Worship |
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KUCHING, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- The state government has identified 43 houses of worship which are built illegally on government land, the State Legislative Assembly was told Thursday.
Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Department Naroden Majais said based on a Land and Survey Department record, the illegal houses of worship were detected in Kuching, Sri Aman, Miri, Limbang, Samarahan, Bintulu, Mukah and Betong.
"So far the government has not carried out any demolition on these structures," he said in reply to Voon Lee Shan (DAP-Batu Lintang) during question time.
Naroden said if the government required the land, it would negotiate with the management of the places of worship on how to go about acquiring the land.
"For instance, when the government needed a land in Jalan Petanak Kuching, we negotiated with the management of a Chinese temple there and they agreed to relocate it to another site approved by the government," he said.
He said that the same thing happened when the government acquired the land in Kampung Similajau Baru in Bintulu for the Sabah-Sarawak pipeline project.
"The surau management in the area agreed to relocate the surau to another area," he said, adding that this showed that the state government had never enforced the law in a reckless manner.
"However, it is better for those wanting to build houses of worship to obtain the approval from the local authorities first before going ahead with it," he said.
-- BERNAMA
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