Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has denied claims that the state government has taken away land from the people in the remote areas of Hulu Kelantan.

He reminded the people of Kelantan not to claim that the land they occupied  belonged to them as long as the land ownership title had not been issued to them.

Nik Aziz said as long as the local authority had not conducted the perimeter survey and placed the demarcation stones, and the Land Office had not issued the land title, the land belonged to the state government.

"I deny that the state government has seized people's land allegedly in Hulu Kelantan, and what the government has developed is land not owned by residents in the remote areas," he told reporters after attending a wedding reception for

Orang Asli couples in Kampung Pasir Linggi, Pos Lebir, near Gua Musang today.

The ladang rakyat or people's farm project issue has angered some quarters, with about 500 Orang Asli demonstrating in front of the Gua Musang Land and Mines Office and handing over a memorandum on May 18, demanding the PAS state government to return to them their indigenous ancestral land.

On May 16, about 1,000 people including from NGOs and Umno Youth held a demonstration wearing red in protest against the ladang rakyat project claimed to have involved irregularities. The demonstration was held in front of the state government office in Kota Bharu.

On April 27, three Temiar Orang Asli men from Pos Belatim, Gua Musang, filed an application at the Kota Bharu High Court to restrain the state government from approving land in Pos Belatim to Perbadanan Ladang Rakyat Negeri Kelantan for the ladang rakyat project.

- Bernama