SQUATTING SHOULD BE MADE A CRIMINAL OFFENCE

Dec 01, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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There is one sure way to obtain a government house lot. Go and squat on a piece of State land or reserve and when the demolition squad comes to remove your structure, raise a mighty noise and the government will be forced to offer you an allocation of a house lot so that you will no longer be in a state of illegality.
This is the lawlessness that is being encouraged in the country. Persons in clear violation of the law are being rewarded with house lots so that the situation can be regularized.
Consider the other side. A law abiding citizen applies for a house lot. He abides by the rules and applies. He does not go and squat on State land.
He waits his turn. There are tens of thousands of such persons who are waiting for their house lot allocation. Some have made more than one application since they are not sure what happened to their original application. They are not prepared to break the law.
Yet here is someone who openly flouts the law, squats on a piece of land and when the bulldozer goes to remove that person all manner of defences are put forward as to why the authorities are punishing poor people.
During the recent demolition exercise in Timehri, I heard one person ask what about the rights of the persons whose house was being bulldozed? What rights are we talking about? Someone goes and illegally occupies land and suddenly out of thin air acquires rights?
Whenever the demolition team moves in there are no shortage of agitators. We hear about the people not having anywhere to go. So where were they before they squatted? We hear all manner of excuses
Squatting is now out of hand in Guyana. Land was always scarce and people always had a hunger for land. However, under the PPP administration some 70,000 house lots were said to have been given out. So why is there still so much squatting?
There is still so much squatting because those who are squatting are getting away with it. What should have happened a long time ago was that regional demolition teams should have been appointed and should have gone out every day to ensure that no squatting took place. The greatest deterrence to unlawful conduct is for persons to know that their unlawful conduct will not be tolerated.
The situation at Timehri was allowed to develop. The squatting increased because persons got away with it. Under the PNC there was not that much squatting in the area because the squatters knew that they would not have been allowed.
The squatting near the Cheddi Jagan International Airport is an eyesore and an embarrassment. Those illegal shops multiplied rapidly over the years and were even embellished to the tune of millions of dollars. Are these poor people’s shops?
One of the reasons why Georgetown is in the mess it is in is because of squatting, which the authorities could have nipped in the bud, but did not. Today we have in certain parts of the city, persons squatting on the banks of major drainage canals, turning places like the Railway Embankment into a shanty strip with human excrement being dumped feet away from human habitation.
Throughout this country the law is being flexed and when this happens people are doing as they please and when it is time for them to remove there is a big hue and cry about their rights and what these people should do. What they should do is to get off the state reserves.
You have to decide whether you wish a society that is governed by law and order or whether you wish a situation where lawlessness prevails.  Once the choice is made then there must be the mechanism to deal with defaulters of the law, and if needs be, the law itself needs to give greater protection against squatting.
This column has called for squatting to be made a criminal offence. This column has called for laws to be passed that would deny squatters any access at all to utility services.
We cannot develop this country properly if half of the government’s time is dedicated to development and half to curbing lawlessness.  This will tire any administration, much less one that is already operating at half-pace.
The government is spending millions to regularize squatting areas and then still has to find the same millions to put in basic infrastructure for housing schemes.
This country will remain poor and stagnant because there is a limit to what can be done in any country when there is no control over property, be it public or private. Modern societies are supposed to be ordered not chaotic, and squatting creates chaos. Suppose everyone decides overnight that he or she has a right to squat. What is going to happen to Guyana?
It is time that strong measures are taken to deal with squatting. It is time to end the rewarding of squatting.  Make the practice of squatting a criminal offence and jail those in breach of the law. Instead of finding house lots for those who have squatted, those persons should be asked to compensate the State for having encroached on State lands.

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