Greetings friends. I had just decided to be escapist and light-hearted today when I recalled that last Friday I promised to touch on the now-sensitive issue of land management including allocations (transports, leases). So here we go – very briefly.
Lo and behold, even as I indicated herein last Friday, in Saturday’s Stabroek (June 8) former PPP top-man, former Minister Clement Rohee had a letter published exploring related land issues, even expanded to water/hydrographic surveying to be done by the vital entity, the Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC). The PPP man seemed to be concerned about the Lands Commission venturing into water/marine surveys, its capacity to do it even though that activity is included in the Commission’s mandate. Rohee is suspicious about all of the Lands Commission’s recent reforms and programmes.
Now all these issues about land policy and management being published are not ones which capture the public attention easily. They read as dry and always a bit too technical. Unless you are a stakeholder/citizen with very relevant interest in maintaining or acquiring large tracts of state land(s) for some purpose. The GSLC will now remind you that state-controlled lands also constituted our “National Patrimony”. But I return to land a few paragraphs below.