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Cotton Tree residents battling MMA over titled lands
A West Berbice man joined with 103 residents, to become actively engaged in a fight against the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Development Association (MMA/ADA) in Region Five for several acres of land which they say belonged to their now deceased fore parents.
Mansoor Khan standing before the billboards he erected along the roadway in Cotton Tree
Mansoor Khan, who holds over 20 acres of land now under threat of being taken away from him, has taken it upon himself to initiate a legal battle in the Courts. He is adamant in his fight with the MMA and government for what he is convinced rightfully belongs to him.
He stated that his grandparents along with those of many other residents purchased the Village of Cotton Tree in 1882. “They were granted a licence for the plans which consisted of 1753 acres of land. This land has been occupied from the inception to this date by the residents in Cotton Tree”.
He added that MMA/ADA, in 2008, had advertised to cancel the titles of all the lands. Kaieteur News was informed that the land titles are in the names of all the proprietors (103 present- day residents of Cotton Tree).
“The (MMA/ADA) wants to hold the title so that we cannot get rights to the land and they want to re-possess and re-allocate. We are vigorously opposing this and the matter is now pending in the Court of Appeal.”
He accused the MMA/ ADA of being “in the breach of the rules of the High Court when it sent me a letter dated October 18, informing me that the licence had been cancelled. My lawyer wrote MMA/ADA General Manager on October 30, 2012, protesting this move”.
Letters of complaint were dispatched to Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman, Nigel Hughes; Leader of the Opposition (APNU), David Granger and President Donald Ramotar, as well as the Attorney General Anil Nandlall, informing them about MMA/ADA’s decision.
“The people will not yield to MMA/ADA!”
Further, Khan and the other residents are demanding that the body be disbanded immediately.
He quoted the Constitution of Guyana Article 20 “Rights of Inheritance” (State Lands Act 62:01 Art 10) in that these lands should have passed on to the living relatives of the fore- parents.
“This is the third generation now on the land and they are not going to let loose!” he reiterated.
“They have already taken Rosignol and D’Edward, Numbers 5,6,7, 10, where these lands were owned by the proprietors. Cotton Tree is the only second- depth land which is still owned—and the title is still in the proprietors’ names,” he stated.
Khan added, too, that what is indeed surprising is that the residents who owned the lands have been cultivating there for a number of years and they (MMA) didn’t want to give us title for the land.”
The matter is currently at the Appeal Court and there is no date fixed as yet “but it seems to me that if MMA pursues any of the allocation and cancellation, it means to say there will be a confrontation between the proprietors and MMA.”
The residents are prepared to take further action, “but we have to wait for when we have the correct timing for the action.”
“I will not give up an inch of my daddy’s land—I will not allow my daddy’s property which they have suffered and put in blood and sweat in those lands to go, under no circumstance!”
The matter was last called in 2008 at the Berbice High Court. Justice Roxanne George, Khan said, “refused the injunction and as a result, I have filed an Appeal in the Court of Appeal”.
“We are waiting to see what the court will do and we are watching!”
Khan has also erected several billboards in front of his Cotton Tree, West Berbice residence, to protest the action of MMA/ADA. Efforts to contact the MMA/ADA for a comment, proved futile.
The senior citizen has also stated that he is regularly informing the officials at the U.S Embassy about the matter, since he is a U.S. Citizen.
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