During ‘Meet the Public’ forum, organised by the Ministry of the Presidency and other state agencies in Region 10 on Friday, several persons raised concerns in relation to the acquisition of lands, land titling and sport.
APNU/AFC’s representative for Region 10, Jermaine Figueira disclosed that an assessment was completed at Amelia’s Ward, Linden which revealed that there was space to accommodate over 2,000 house lots.
He added, however, that the government is looking for another area where people can have access to more house lots rather than having one area overcrowded. This initiative he said will also ease the backlog of land applications that would have developed over the years.
The Member of Parliament explained to residents which gathered at the Mckenzie Sports Club ground for the Meet the Public Day initiative, that “when [Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Mrs. Valerie Sharpe-Patterson] took up office, she saw that Linden only had about 35 house lots earmarked for distribution in this big community. So what she did was employ different agencies to assess the situation.”
Additionally, several persons raised concerns in relation to land titling: issues which came as a result of the changeover of administration from [the Guyana Mining Enterprise Limited] to [the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited]. It was disclosed that many residents are at a point where NICIL is giving them the approval to own the land that they are residing on, but they cannot get the title.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon assured the residents that serious attention will be given to this issue by engaging with the management of NICIL and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) to have this matter solved.
“We will have to make some serious decisions in relation to that so that we can bring relief to the people in this region and we will have to make a very special effort to bring that to conclusion,” he said.
Residents also raised concerns over the condition of the McKenzie Sports Club and that of the field. Mayor of Linden, Mr. Carwyn Holland said that the condition of the complex is a major concern of his as well and he is hoping that efforts could be made to have the condition addressed.
This was addressed by Director of Sport, Mr. Christopher Jones who said that plans are in motion to address some of the immediate infrastructural matters like the lights and other enhancement works at the ground.
He added that to complete all the work needed on the ground would take about GY$20 million and that that he is looking to ensure that allocations for the ground are made in the 2017 budget.
There were some isolated concerns involved issues related to pension, drainage and irrigation, tax related matters and other issues.
(GINA)
