BIDOR: Farmers in Kampung Baru Kuala Bikam, who fear losing their farmland to a sand mining company, have gotten the attention of Perak Mentri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu.
Sungkai assemblyman A. Sivanesan met Ahmad Faizal in Ipoh yesterday to discuss the issue.
The farmers in the village, which is under Sivanesan’s Sungkai constituency, have been living with uncertainty because the Mentri Besar Incorporated, a state-linked company, wanted to mine sand on the 76.9ha of farmland there.
Their fears were compounded when the sand mining company started to bulldoze the farms last Friday.
Sivanesan told farmers at a meeting in the village yesterday evening that he had earlier met Ahmad Faizal, followed by representatives from Mentri Besar Incorporated and the sand mining company.
MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong wrote in his Facebook last Saturday that the farmers deserved an answer from Ahmad Faizal and the state executive council after the farms were bulldozed by the sand mining company.
He was commenting on a report in The Star that highlighted their situation.
Yesterday, Sivanesan said only 24 farmers came to meet him at his office here on July 22 and he disputed the report saying that some 60 farmers were affected.
The farmers clarified that not all affected farm owners went to Sivanesan’s office on July 22.
“His office is on the first floor and some farmers have difficulty climbing up the stairs,” said one farmer, adding that some farmers were from the same family and had only sent one member as a representative.
Sivanesan said the Tapah Land Office would visit the village to measure the farmland within the 76.9ha in a week’s time and identify the number of farmers involved.
Sivanesan said he would hold a meeting with the land office and farmers to seek a solution.
He also said the sand mining company had been told to temporarily stop any work on the farmland.
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