With ongoing efforts to avert squatting, more than 100 families in several villages along the West Coast of Berbice (WCB) are slated to receive Certificates of Title this year, said Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall SC yesterday at a press briefing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
The Attorney General said that the regularization exercise is being conducted by his ministry in collaboration with the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC), the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), and the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee.
Nandlall said that the government has commenced the exercise in Cotton Tree, Numbers Two, Three, Four, and Number Five Villages, WCB.
Attention will also be directed to the Number 46 Village on the Corentyne, the subject minister informed.
He told reporters that this process includes land surveys of each area, data collection, and a legal process with the Commissioner of Titles.
The AG remarked “This is by no means an insignificant accomplishment, as it required every single house lot that these people have been living on to be surveyed [and] streets adjusted. People had to adjust their fences so that we could have proper legal access, [and] then record the information of each occupant or owner of each plot of land”.
Deeming the process protracted due to the number of citizens who were still squatting, Nandlall said the government is currently concluding one phase of the regularization exercise and with that being completed more than 100 titles will be issued to persons in these respective villages.
The process is being executed at no expense to these families according to the Minister of Legal Affairs.
He recounted that similar exercises were conducted in Bath, West Coast Berbice, with 30 land titles being distributed, followed by 75 beneficiaries in Enterprise, East Coast Demerara and 75 in Tuschen, West Coast Demerara.
The Minister said that the programme will also continue along the Essequibo coast.
The Minister of Legal Affairs, also noted that there are a few communities along the East Coast of Demerara that are yet to be regularized.
