Although the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) has rejected claims to land in the Crab Island, Berbice vicinity, it yesterday issued a call to claimants to submit supporting documents so that an “amicable resolution” in the matter could be arrived at.
“In an effort to ensure transparency and foster amicable resolution, claimants with objections are invited to submit key documents to support claims made, including transports and any other pertinent documents to allow the commission to validate their claims,” an advertisement, in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek stated.
Six persons are claiming lands north of Crab Island, Berbice, where a major oil support facility is expected to be built. They had raised objections after the GL&SC had invited tenders for the development of the land surrounding the planned oil facility, and argued that the land belonged to them and they have transports dating back to 1925.
The group in turn, through their attorney Rexford Jackson, placed a counter ad saying that, “All lands situate within Lots 1-37 Right Bank of Berbice River; below Crab Island, East Coast Berbice, Kintyre/ Borlam are privately owned. No State Lands exist between the Original Sea Defence Dam and the foreshore of the North Atlantic”.
Commissioner of the GL&SC, Trevor Benn, had explained that the six persons are indeed owners of some transported lands in the area, but that the swathes north of the sea defence belongs to the state, as fixed by the law.
Benn called in his agency’s Legal Advisor and Manager of Surveys to explain to Stabroek News why the lands being claimed are not private but state lands. “This is the law, because all of the lands from the current sea defence to the sea, the Atlantic Ocean…are state lands. Their transported lands are at the back of it. Their transported lands would stop at the sea defence or sea defence reserve,” the legal advisor, Yolanda Lammot, noted.
Survey Manager Rene Duesbury pointed to the Kitty area as an example, saying that decades ago, also, lands were allotted all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean, where the current Kitty Public Road was then called George Street. He said that when the line of defence at Kitty was drawn up, all areas after the line became state lands, what is now known as the Kitty foreshore.
Persons with objections must submit their documents, addressed to the Commissioner, on or before May 25, 2017. The close off time is at 2pm on the said date and all submissions are to be marked “Objection to sale of leasehold interest.”
