APPROXIMATELY 3,000 residents of Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) are set to receive their Certificates of Title for plots of land which they have been occupying for decades, but have no documentation to prove ownership.

In 2013, former President Donald Ramotar had visited the community and announced a land-regularisation exercise for the locality through a land-registration process that is enshrined in the country’s laws; he had also pledged some $43 million to conduct the survey of the parcels of land.

When the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) demitted office in 2015, the registration exercise, which required much government assistance, was disregarded. However, while out of government, attorneys Anil Nandlall and Priya Manickchand provided legal assistance to the residents to facilitate the process as far as possible.

Now back in government and appointed Attorney General and Minister of Education respectively, Nandlall and Manickchand visited Cotton Tree on Thursday last when they announced that the process will recommence with the full support of the government funding the entire initiative.

The process involves declaring the area a “registration area” under the Land Registry Act, surveying the parcels of land occupied and upon completion of the survey, submission of applications for title to the Land Court, which will conduct hearings and take evidence of occupation before ownership is granted.

Thus far, the plans are being drafted and are almost complete, and some applications were already made to the court. However, apart from lack of government support, the county of Berbice has been without a sitting Land Court Judge for the last three years, another hinderance to the process.

As an interim measure, given the bulk of applications in the system, a Land Court Judge from the county of Demerara will visit the county to dispose of the matters in a timely manner. The first matters are expected to be heard in August this year.

While recognising that there might have been changes in circumstances since the commencement of the process some years ago, and technical challenges as well, the Attorney General announced that as a means of fast forwarding the process, the applications without complexities will be dealt with first.

Jasmattie Lall, a resident of Cotton Tree, told the Sunday Chronicle that she has been living in Cotton Tree since 1972; she was relocated to a plot of land by the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) in 1982, with the promise of a land title one year after; she has been waiting since.

Ramcharran Singh, also a resident of Cotton Tree, lauded the recommencement of the initiative; he is hopeful that the government keeps its word to facilitate a smooth process.

“Right now, this village hold up, right now you can’t get a loan, you can’t sell your land, you can’t get a small loan – nothing; everything suspended in this village because of this land-titling process” he said.