Plantation Hope residents to soon receive land titles

…lands to be made available for farming – Mustapha

More than 50 families occupying lands at Plantation Hope (Enmore Grass Field), East Coast Demerara, began receiving their Agreements of Sale on Monday and also registered for their Certificate of Title.
The titles are slated to be handed over at the end of the week, thereby ending years of waiting.

Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal met with the residents in their community, where he made this announcement. The Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), Sasenarine Singh were also present at the meeting, which is in keeping with a commitment of President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali.
Enmore Grass Field was initially identified as a livestock-rearing area for residents of Enmore Hope West. However, farmers began squatting in the area in the late 90s and regularisation commenced in 2011. Some 55 lots were created in the area and 52 persons were verified and issued with allocation letters.
Minister Croal explained that the process was delayed due to the land acquisition process, as the area would have been under the purview of GuySuCo and National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL). The legal transfer to CH&PA has since been activated, allowing the process to move forward.

Following the community meeting, the Housing and Water Ministry through CH&PA processed and handed over the Agreements of Sale to residents at its Croal Street, Georgetown Annex.
Persons living in Enmore East also raised land ownership concerns at the meeting, which Minister Croal stated will be addressed to allow those residents to move forward.
Since Government took office in 2020, there has been an aggressive drive to distribute house lots of titles to Guyanese. In fact, the Housing Ministry has been successful thus far in its quest to deliver 50,000 house lots by 2025.
The Ministry had also started the process of establishing about 16 new housing areas across Regions Three, Four, Five, and Six.
Meanwhile, during the engagement with Enmore residents, cash crop farming, as well as other community-related concerns were addressed.
Minister Mustapha reassured farmers of the Government’s commitment to developing the agriculture sector. The Minister told farmers that alternate systems are being put in place to ensure they can continue to farm.
The meeting came days after President Dr Irfaan Ali met with the residents who expressed concerns about developmental works that are ongoing in the village and how the farmers would be affected.
Minister Mustapha told farmers that lands will be made available and that a team from the GLDA, NAREI, NDIA, and GuySuCo will be working to identify lands. He also said that farmers will now be exposed to a more scientific way of planting as shade houses will be made available by the Ministry. NDIA engineers will also be working to enhance drainage in the farming area.