LSA WANTS POWER TO REMOVE SQUATTERS

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The Land Settlement Agency wants legislative power to allow it to remove squatters.   At present, that power falls to the Commissioner of State-lands, who has reported that her hands are tied, due to reasons other than legislation.   In the meantime, the squatting population continues to increase by the hundreds annually.   Alicia Boucher has more in this report.

Transcript

00:00The land settlement agency is responsible for regularizing people who

00:04are squatting on state lands by way of providing certificates of comfort,

00:09statutory leases, etc. At a public accounts committee hearing, Chief

00:13Executive Officer of the LSA Hazar Hussain revealed that based on a 2019 to

00:182020 survey, there are 68,000 squatters in the country of which 23,000 have

00:24applied for regularization. While this was the figure reported since 2015

00:29onward, Hussain says by now it is more than likely much higher. We don't patrol

00:34all state lands because we patrol most of our designated sites, but based on

00:38the sites we have patrolled over the years, the trend has been on average four

00:43to five hundred new squatting families per year. But the LSA cannot do anything

00:48about it. Chairman, as you're aware, the LSA has no power whatsoever to

00:53contain squatting as we speak right now and this was highlighted in the Justice

00:58Gobind judgment of 2010 where it was deemed that the LSA would have acted

01:02contrary to law up to that point in removing illegal structures. The entity

01:07responsible for that is the Commissioner of State Lands, but the Commissioner Paul

01:11O'Drake says she is facing serious constraints including acting on reports

01:16from the LSA. So I receive all his reports of all the new squatting

01:20structures. I myself am unable to do anything. I have no equipment. I don't

01:27have enough staff and this has been a problem for decades. The last time any

01:36new field staff was in 2011 and I've been begging, almost all have

01:41retired. I am down to one or two per county. In 2017, the LSA submitted a list

01:49of recommendations to the Legislative Review Committee to amend the State Land

01:54Act and the State Land Regularization of Tenure Act. Several recommendations

01:59have been made. One, very important, the definition of state land to be cleared

02:06up. Two, that the CSL, the Commissioner of State Lands, be empowered to delegate

02:12authority to the Land Supplement Agency in particular, to act as an agent of the

02:19Commissioner that contains squatting. As for a time frame as to when the country

02:24can expect further action to be taken by the LRC, in terms of legislation,

02:29Hussein could only say, quote-unquote, we know that it is actively being considered.

02:34Among other recommendations made by the LSA is the classification of squatting

02:39under the law as a criminal act. The offenses are very minimal. What we have

02:47suggested is that the squatting be treated as a civil offense and there be

02:52fines for different levels of squatting. For the first time, repeat offenders,

02:56etc. And we have suggested fines for that. The agency is also facing challenges

03:01when it comes to issuing land titles to regularized squatters, as it is in law

03:06not a landowner. What have you done about it? Sir Chairman, we have made the

03:11suggestion in writing with respect to that. One of the legislative changes for

03:15the LSA is to become a landowner, which will allow the LSA, as you pointed out,

03:19the authority to use the power of self-help to deal with squatters who

03:23come onto the lands if it becomes the lands of the LSA. And secondly, to

03:29deal with the other issues, other administrative issues. We have also

03:32suggested that the LSA becoming a landowner can then have the authority to

03:38speed up its operations. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development says it is

03:43unaware of any documentation to that effect. However, according to the

03:46Commission of State Lands, once the land settlement areas under the LSA are

03:51clearly defined, the problem will be resolved. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.

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