ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall S.C., has said that the government has been able to regularise lands for possibly thousands of persons since 2020 under its aggressive land regularisation programme.

AG Nandlall disclosed this during his recent end-of-year press conference and noted that though land regularisation is not a traditional role of the Legal Affairs Ministry, it is an important one.

“We have been able to regularise hundreds if not thousands of persons already during this land regularisation programme from 2020 to now,” he said.

He noted that currently, five villages along West Coast Berbice are benefitting from the programme beginning from Cotton Tree and so far some 250 titles have already been distributed with another 80 plus ready for distribution.

Seeking to respond to the criticisms and fallacies of detractors who claim that the government is denying Afro-Guyanese titles, Nandlall noted that these villages consist of a 90 per cent Afro-Guyanese population.

Similarly, he noted that authorities are regularising over 450 families living on lands for many years at Anns Grove on the East Coast of Demerara and this is being done in tandem with the Ministry of Housing and Water and the Central Housing and Planning Authority.

Added to this, he noted that a similar programme was launched at Vigilance.

“We are regularising a village also on the Corentyne Coast called 46 Village, where the entire village is a village of squatters. We are giving them titles for the first time,” he added.

Further, on the Essequibo Coast, Nandlall indicated that an Amerindian Village is also engaged in the programme which will see some 200 families receiving titles.

Also, he highlighted that in January, the government will be working to distribute titles in Walton Hall where over 25 families will receive their transports.

The AG explained that these persons have been living on co-op lands and since the co-op society is now defunct, the occupants will receive titles.

“That is not part of our conventional function but this is just something on the side that we are working along with different agencies ensuring that we accelerate the government’s regularisation programme,” he added.