…urges residents to organise

GOVERNMENT will soon decide on how to distribute ancestral lands to residents of the community of Queenstown, Essequibo Coast.

“We have to decide who do we hand the land to…do you hand it to the NDC, a community…it is an issue of ownership,” said Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon in response to questions on ancestral lands at a community meeting in Queenstown on Wednesday.

He said lands which are not transported and titled currently belong to the state but, it should be returned to the community. Harmon said the direction in which they choose to go is outlined in a report which was compiled after the completion of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into ancestral lands.

At the end of the COI a report was compiled with over 500 recommendations. President David Granger in March 2017 had established a CoI under the Commission of Inquiry Act, to examine and make recommendations to resolve all issues, and uncertainties surrounding the claims of Amerindian land titling, the individual, joint or communal ownership of lands acquired by freed Africans and any matters relating to land titling in Guyana.
A resident of Queenstown, Cornell Beaton said there was a case on behalf of Queenstown for lands which residents wish to extend and use to create a housing scheme. “We have a plot of land over the high bridge…there is 500 acres of land which we want to dedicate for housing in Queenstown,” said Beaton.

Harmon in reply said Government would love to return the land to the community but they have to decide how to disburse it. “I would love to see you have it…you are the heirs to the land,” said the director general. He urged the people of Queenstown to come together and determine in their own way how to address the matter. Harmon maintained that Government wants the land to be moved from the state to the community.