By Public Relations Unit, Ministry of Lands
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, Dr. Turad Senesie has embarked on state land site visits to the Sugar Loaf Community in Regent and Gloucester Saddle over the last two days.
Accompanied by his colleague Minister in the Ministry of Environment, Directors in the Lands Ministry and other state officials including the security forces, Minister Senesie’s mission was to inspect state land in a bid to ascertain the extent of encroachment and environmental degradation activities in those parts of the country.
In both communities, the ministers observed an alarming rate of encroachment into forest reserve areas particularly, in addition to haphazard construction of structures with no proper community planning for roads and other necessary facilities.
At the Sugar Loaf Community, for example, a giant tree in the mountainous community recently collapsed and completely destroyed a dwelling house.
Such evidence of dangerous and unplanned construction, as witnessed in these two communities, represents a typical example of the negative trend across many communities in the country and the Lands Minister has expressed strong determination to reverse such.
Following the two days inspection tour on Monday and Tuesday, Minister Senesie ordered the Ministry’s Planning Directorate to develop a comprehensive and well-planned layout of the communities to include public facilities like schools, health centres, public toilets, cemetery, among others.
He further instructed the Director of Lands and Survey, Tamba Dauda, to invite all those with properties and claims to land in those communities to take their documents to the ministry for verification before a final decision is made. The Minister has ordered all property owners in these communities to immediately stop any construction work or other related activities until further notice
