‘No need for squatting’ – Min. Croal tells Lindeners

Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal MP told residents of Linden, Region Ten that there is no need to illegally occupy state lands, as the Government will deliver on its promise to create housing opportunities for all Guyanese.

Minister Croal led a two-day housing drive to the Region on Tuesday, where some 400 house lots and over 144 land titles and transports were delivered.

“We have a huge squatting issue and while we know it is something that is ongoing for years, in Region Ten’s case it is something that has been encouraged by operatives for persons to start taking up residency on state lands, and so we are going to address that,” Minister Croal said.

Currently, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has more than 4,000 applications pending from Region Ten. The Ministry has begun clearing that backlog through its ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive.

“You can see with our aggressive housing programme. For our first five years we said that we will deliver on 50,000 house lots, 10,000 every year and of course Region Ten is part of that amount.”

Providing an overview of the two-day house lot distribution, Minister Croal said the ministry was able to achieve its target of allocating 400 house lots in Amelia’s Ward Phase Two. Individuals who applied prior to 2010 were particularly targeted during that process. 

Minister Croal urged citizens to be patient and allow the system to work. Once persons are within the system and their information is up to date, they will be called for their house lots.

“Once you have an acknowledgement letter and you are awaiting an allocation letter, I want to make a plea to those persons to don’t frustrate yourself to come to our office or go to the regional office and spending a lot of time…you will be dealt with,” he said.

Meanwhile,Minister Croal said some persons were unable to uplift their land titles and transports during the two-day exercise. Those persons would be facilitated at the ministry’s office at any time. In cases where persons have migrated, the Minister said a Power of Attorney would be facilitated.

He said the ministry will continue working with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited and the Guyana Land Registry to fast track the processing of land titles and transports in the region.

The housing drive in Linden will see the Government distributing over 5,000 house lots as well as titles and transports in Regions Two, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten in less than one year. It has also pushed the Government closer to realising its goal of distributing 10,000 lots during its first year in office and an overall 50,000 lots in five years.