00:00Today, through the Ministry of Land and Legal Affairs, working together with the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands
00:05and the Office of the Registrar General, together with the Office of the President, I am happy to announce that
00:13over 100 persons today will benefit from their certificates of title, their titles, or what we now call the state
00:21grants.
00:21Minister of Land and Legal Affairs, Saddam Hussein, was speaking at a state land distribution ceremony in Shogonas, where recipients
00:29from Central and South Trinidad finally received deeds to their lands. He said that the process applicants had to endure
00:36to obtain their deeds was lengthy and, in many cases, unnecessarily complicated.
00:41I asked the Commissioner one simple question. Why are these things taking so long? She tells me, Minister, and I
00:50couldn't believe it, that they have a typewriter in 2026 and 2025 that you have to go and typewrite this
00:59document.
00:59I can't remember when last I saw a typewriter. Then this document is in a booklet. You now have to
01:07go and get a special printer to print this plan on the document. And this printer shuts down very often.
01:16Hussein said that government is now moving to digitize the application process, describing the existing system as outdated.
01:24We are now moving towards a digital environment so that the Commissioner's office, while the Commissioner's office is in Barataria,
01:33it speaks to the office of the Director of Surveys that is in Port of Spain digitally, and it speaks
01:38to the office of the President, who is also, we could speak to them digitally, and therefore we have all
01:44of the processes operating simultaneously.
01:47He added that the government also plans to overhaul the country's construction permitting system under the Chief Medical Office of
01:54Health.
01:55Currently, multiple approvals from various agencies are required before a completion certificate can be issued, creating major bottlenecks for both
02:04private citizens and developers.
02:08The government has taken a very aggressive approach towards even reducing the time further.
02:15And P.S. Rick Jarvid Ali is assisting me with that project to ensure that we can bring down the
02:20approval process, at least for simple developments, to 45 days.
02:27From two years to 45 days.
02:31TV6 spoke with some recipients who expressed gratitude to the Ministry for being able to receive their deeds after a
02:39long wait.
02:39I already paid for this property about 15 years now. I paid for this, and I was always waiting, and
02:45they say they're going to get it registered, and it never happened until now.
02:53Yeah, so I'm so thankful for that, you know, due to the Minister of Legal Affairs, and then we get
03:01through.
03:01What I realized today, this was prepared since 2014, and every time you went to inquire about it after that,
03:12right, they couldn't tell you anything, they couldn't find anything.
03:15But I have a deed in my hand that was prepared since 2014.
03:19Sharla Kisto, TV6 News.
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