Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 09, 2016 News
President David Granger has said that Government is going to establish a Lands Commission. The Commission will be tasked with resolving the numerous controversies surrounding the thousands of hectares of communal lands across Guyana.
This was announced during the President’s keynote address at the Fourth Annual State of the African Guyanese Forum held at the Critchlow Labour College on Sunday.
The communal lands are those lands that were purchased by the free Africans in 1839 and formed the first villages in Guyana.
The President said that these communal lands (villages) are the cradles of free economy and of local democracy as a whole. He urged the organizers of the African Guyanese Forum, the Cuffy 250 Committee, to pay closer attention to what is happening at the level of the villages.
Creating opportunities to foster the growth of village economies is one of the five objectives outlined as part of Guyana’s plan of action for the United Nations (UN) designated International Decade for People of African Descent.
He continued, “We have to walk on two legs, not only looking at the economy but also looking at the way those villages are governed. The villages were the homes of our households, homes of our schools, homes of our churches, homes of our farms, so the plan of action which I ask you to contemplate today should aim at revitalizing village economies.”
The main objective of the ‘International Year’ is to raise awareness of the challenges facing People of African Descent with the view of fostering discussions that could generate proposals for solutions to tackle these challenges.
The President further promised that the Government will work along with those non-governmental organizations which represent people of African Descent in fulfilling the objectives of the decade, another of which includes education.
He said that education remains the way out of poverty and inequality. He noted that while the right to free primary education is provided for under the Constitution, it does not prevent more than 4,000 Guyanese children from dropping-out of school each year.
“Just as our illiterate fore parents 178 years ago, saw the benefits of education, we their educated descendants, can do no better than to ensure that every single child goes to school and stay in school. This is what the boats, bicycles, and buses programme is all about. It is about getting children to school and keeping them in school”.
Achieving equality and eliminating ethnic discrimination is another objective which the President said Guyanese should endeavor to fulfill. “Discrimination against anyone promotes insecurity and social exclusion and that could lead to disorder.”
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I wish this Commission all success with its work. For starter, it may look at at the descendants of the original purchasers and validate that descendants who beneficially occupy the lands. The commissions also need to look also at non communal villages because many old Africans left their properties as ” Children Properties”