THE National Assembly yesterday passed the Title to Land (Prescription and Limitation) (Amendment) Bill 2011 which seeks to amend certain sections of the Title to Land (Prescription and Limitation) Act.
The Bill was passed by a government majority, as the opposition members of parliament objected to its passage.
On the second reading of the Bill, Attorney General Charles Ramson explained that the amendments sought to address the acquisition of land title by prescription, by amending Sections 3 and 13 of the Principal Act.
According to the Minister of Legal Affairs, the government did not come with any underhand motive, but to “ensure that what was given by the Act in 1952 was adjusted because there is what is called a dynamic shift in property rights and motives behind people making use of the invigilance of those who are supposed to be protecting state’s property.” He said that the Bill “did not allow for any disadvantageous act to be taken against any possessor of land.”
People’s National Congress Reform Member Debra Backer objected to the Bill on the ground that it would negatively impact hundreds of people. Backer said that Opposition Leader Robert Corbin had written wrote to the Prime Minister as leader of government business in the House, requesting a deferral to allow for deeper consultation with members of its constituencies.
Adding his support to the Opposition voices was Alliance for Change Presidential Candidate Khemraj Ramjattan, who said that his party could not support the bill based on its unconstitutionality, among other reasons.
However, in his rebuttal, Minister Ramson disclosed that the deferral which the PNC requested only arrived that morning and contained no sound reasons, in his judgment, as to why such an action was necessary. Whilst dismissing Ramjattan’s claims of unconstitutionality, Minister Ramson noted that the act sought to prevent “lawless, furtive behaviour” and does not “violate the spirit or the letter of the constitution.”
Attorney-at-Law and People’s Progressive Party member Anil Nandlall, explaining the tenets of the Bill, maintained that it in no way impinged on a person’s right to acquire land privately, but was being advanced for the “protection of the natural patrimony of Guyana.” He highlighted government’s record of distributing more than 100,000 house lots since its ascension into office, after inheriting a situation where there was not even a Housing Ministry. (GINA)
Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn, gave his “unreserved support” to the Bill, adding that the PPP/C record on land distribution speaks for itself, having set up schemes and regularised many communities.