A cease work order is to be issued to halt a sand mining operation at Sand Hills, Demerara River, following a protest by members of the Major family yesterday morning in front of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
The Majors were claiming that owner of Roraima Mining Dr Grantley Walrond was mining illegally on their land and that the GGMC was not doing anything about it.
Contacted, Walrond told Stabroek News via telephone that his company was granted a licence by the government to operate on the land in 1993 and that the matter was engaging the court’s attention.
Stabroek News was told by Desmond Major, who stated that he was born on that land, that the family has a title to the land and that it was proven by the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission that the land belongs to the family.
Claudette Drayton, the youngest of the seven siblings, stated that Walrond has been on their land for the past 20 years. “The land is family owned. It pass down from generation to generation. He didn’t ask permission to use the land to take and export the sand. We are calling on the President to help us with this situation. Some of our family members were buried on that land and they were exhumed in order for business to be conducted on the land,” Drayton exclaimed.
According to another of the siblings, the matter of ownership of the land is currently in court.
In addition to the issue of ownership of the above mentioned land, a cousin of the same family said she faces a similar situation with her land which is located to the right of her cousins’. She claims that Walrond also occupies her land and that he houses his machinery on her land.
She, too, has a matter in court with Walrond.
Walrond, a former Commissioner of the GGMC, told Stabroek News that the right to the land was obtained in the correct way and that he has had his infrastructure on the disputed land since 1993.
Walrond said he will let the matter be addressed by the court as the land in question is state-owned. Addressing the claim that bodies were exhumed from the land, Walrond said that was complete rubbish as such a thing was never done.
Walrond claimed that members of the family had turned up at his place of business, which is located on the said land, and threatened his employees and as a result the matter was taken to court.
Meanwhile, in a press release issued yesterday, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment said it was investigating sand mining activities “on a private property in Sand Hills, Demerara” following objections by members of the community.
As such, the release said Minister Robert Persaud had directed the GGMC to issue a cease work order to all parties pending a thorough investigation and satisfactory outcome. Noting that the matter was engaging the attention of the court, the ministry said the GGMC would enforce the cease work order “until such time”.
The release said the GGMC was once again urging members of the public to report illegal sand mining to its head office or the nearest mining station.
