Govt focused on giving people real empowerment – Nandlall

…to address regularisation of ECD lands

Noting the importance of land ownership, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, SC, has assured that the Government will be addressing the regularisation of lands on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).

The Attorney General made this commitment to residents of Victoria during a Cabinet outreach in the area over the weekend. In fact, Nandlall said that the process has already started across the country, including the ECD.
This process, according to Nandlall, has been progressing with surveyors from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
“Part and parcel of our development agenda is to diversify our economy. We are positioning Guyana as a source of food, to provide food security for this region. I know (the Minister of Agriculture) has been working on many communities on the East Coast of Demerara, as well as many communities along with NAREI, (NDIA), to help you prepare for this transformation in the agro sector. I have commenced this process in many parts of the East Coast, across the country,” Nandlall said.
“Land is the most powerful asset. God making everything, he stop make land. So, you have to get yourself back to the land and we have to regularise your occupation. And you see people from Lands and Surveys are here? That is part of the equation I would like to focus on. To put you back on the land and make you productive so you can contribute to the economic drive taking place and you can contribute to making Guyana the breadbasket of the Caribbean.”
According to Nandlall, the Government intends to also regularise the backlands in Victoria. With this, the Attorney General said, will come empowerment for the people. He urged the people of Victoria to ask the naysayers what they have ever done for them, when they had the power to do so.
“I believe that that is fundamental to your empowerment. A lot of people are walking this country talking about empowerment. What have they done for you to empower you? We are offering you empowerment in a real way, connecting you back to the land so you can be productive and you can be in a position to transmit that wealth to generations to come.”
“That is empowerment. And that is why when they come to talk to you, you must ask them about that. What have they done for you,” Nandlall further said, eliciting a burst of applause from the crowd.
Meanwhile, work on land titling is in addition to other developments in the legal sphere that are coming to the East Coast of Demerara. They include a new court at Cove and John and Mahaicony, as well as the completed new court at Vigilance.
Cabinet members in the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government have been going on outreaches along the ECD last year, during which the topic of land titling had been raised. At the time, Nandlall had promised to visit communities along the East Coast to begin the process of land regularisation.
During an outreach at Melanie, ECD, residents had raised concerns about land titling and African ancestral lands. The complaints varied from persons unable to obtain titles for the lands their ancestors acquired to persons paying for lands but being yet to receive their transports.
AG Nandlall had assured those residents that a team from the Legal Affairs Ministry would return to the area to address their land titling concerns. He had also disclosed that a similar exercise was being undertaken in Berbice and Essequibo as well.
Back in May 2022, an outreach led by Nandlall in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), saw decades-old land issues at Walton Hall and Jib villages on the Essequibo Coast being addressed. The Attorney General was accompanied at the time by Croal, Regional Vice Chairman Humace Odit, and Prime Ministerial representative Arnold Adams. (G3)