65 Great Diamond squatters to get land titles – Min. Rodrigues

-as Govt takes steps to regularise Block ‘D’

Government will soon be granting 65 squatters of Letters ‘B’ and ‘C’, Block ‘D’, Great Diamond, East Bank Demerara their land titles.

Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Hon. Susan Rodrigues says within three months, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) will issue the titles. She made this disclosure during an engagement at her Ministry on Wednesday.

“Those people, the 65 households, they’ve been there for close to three decades, and the Ministry is going to ensure that in approximately three months’ time, that we can ensure that those persons can acquire their titles finally,” she said.

Minister Rodrigues said the Ministry wrote to Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Mr. Radha Krishna Sharma, who then secured the approval of the Board to transfer the lands to the Government.

“Last month, March 25, 2021, Cabinet gave its no objection and approve the transfer of the said lands from NICIL to the Government… So, now it’s just for us to go through and prepare the documents for the legal mechanism to take its course now, to effect the transfer from NICIL to GoG through the Central Housing and Planning Authority.”

Already, three squatters have been relocated to Prospect, East Bank Demerara.  They were occupying a portion of the land owned by the Demerara Distillers Limited.

“We are in the process of ensuring that those three persons acquire titles for the Prospect area,” the Minister said.

The issue of squatting at Block ‘D’ Great Diamond has been ongoing for three decades.  The Government had tried to regularise the area in 2005, but found the lands were owned by the Guyana Sugar Corporation, which later transferred the lands to the CH&PA.