The recently announced plan by the Minister of Housing to revoke land allocations that were made by the last government between January and July is coming in for criticism from the APNU+AFC Coalition.

In a recent meeting, Minister Collin Croal announced that persons who were allocated lands in the past seven months and benefitted from the previous government’s discounted deal on the land will be getting their money back and the allocations will be revoked.

It is unclear what position the Housing Ministry will take if those persons refuse to accept any refund and give up the house lots they have already been allocated.

In a statement today, the APNU+AFC Coalition broadsided the plan, stating that the Minister is being dishonest with his position that allocated lands were not developed and developed lands were not available.

The coalition said the plan by the PPP to revoke already allocated house lots is an assault on the working people of Guyana. The persons who were granted lands from the state, the coalition said, applied for and were granted the lands legitimately and paid their money.

According to the APNU+AFC, it is aware that there was Cabinet approval for lands to be transferred from NICIL to the Central Housing and Planning Authority, adding that the process was in the final stage of transfer and the lands were allocated for housing development.

The coalition said the monies collected by the CH&PA were budgeted for land development and “it is, therefore, a lie for the PPP to say to these Guyanese who have already made their down payment, that lands are not available.

The coalition said it is clear that the PPP wants to take the lands earmarked for ordinary Guyanese and make it available to upscale housing developers.

“For any government to say that they are reneging on their contractual obligation to conclude the purchase of state lands to poor people is unacceptable”, the statement said.

The coalition reminded that when it entered office in May 2015, there were over 25,000 house-lot applications ‘in the system’ and most of those persons had been waiting for more than 10 years.

The Housing Minister has said that those persons who will lose their land allocations will be returned to the housing system to continue waiting for land to be made available to them.

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