PNCR seeks resolution of land ownership crisis at Sarah Johanna

Apr 08, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) said it has noted with concern reports regarding residents in the Sarah Johanna, East Bank Demerara, receiving eviction notices from a private individual, claiming to be the owner of land on which they live and farm.
“The PNCR hereby calls for the urgent intervention of the Ministry of Housing and Water to address the concerns of residents and to ensure they are treated fairly and respectfully,” the party said in a statement Thursday. According to the PNCR, many of the residents reported that they have been living on the land for a number of years without hindrance. “They further reported that two years ago, a businessman visited the area and informed them that he has purchased four (4) acres of land in the area and they will have to “get off the land”. What is most disturbing, residents’ spoke of the many insults and threats hurled at them by the purported landowner. These are ordinary Guyanese who are trying to make a life and livelihood for their families. Many reported that they have cultivated areas of the land. To remove them will only create hardships. Our nation can and must do better,” the PNCR stated.
The PNCR recalled that in October 2020, these residents protested against their removal and publicly called on the PPP/C regime to resolve the issue based on a PPP election promise to do so when in government. “Even more, the PPP/C’s promised to provide 50,000 house lots for low-income earners and other Guyanese remains a pipe dream. These failures are clear examples of the PPP fake election pledges to ordinary citizens,” the party said.
On the crisis at hand in Sarah Johanna, the PNCR recommends that the Ministers of Housing and Water immediately meet with the purported landowner to ascertain whether the land is legally owned by him.
Secondly, the party wants the Ministers of Housing and Water to engage residents to ascertain whether they made applications for house lots and, if so, priority be given for the applications to be processed and an area in the housing scheme be allocated to them. “The residents must be allowed to remain in place until a full and satisfactory solution is found. The PNCR anticipates a just and sensible solution to this matter. We will continue to monitor the situation. Such crises serve as further evidence for the need for a people-centered national development strategy, as we have been promoting.”

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