News

Noel Thompson, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Property owners in St Elizabeth, Manchester and Claren-don will be able to access titles for their properties under the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP) II - a government initiative.

The project is being done in partnership with Geo Land Title Limited, a Jamaican-owned company, and the South Korean-based Cadastral Survey Corporation (KCSC), with which the Jamaican Government had signed contracts to undertake an expansion of the LAMP initiative in those parishes.

Phase one of the project was first launched in St Catherine in 2000.

official launch

The LAMP II project was officially launched at the Junction Guest House in St Elizabeth on Thursday, with Prime Minister Bruce Golding stating that it would be the first parish to benefit under Phase II.

Explained Golding: "St Elizabeth has been selected as the first parish under LAMP II because it has the largest number of unregistered parcels of land, amounting to approximately 12,500.

"When this programme is completed, the only persons who will not have titles are those who do not wish to have titles."

He added that securing titles for what are now their unregistered lands would be a significant empowerment for all beneficiaries, as their titles would stand as collateral proof."

Golding said only half the almost 800,000 parcels of land islandwide were registered.

And Robert Montague, the de facto local government minister, appealed to the residents to pay their taxes upon receipt of their titles as the funds would be used to undertake parochial projects. He said he hoped that no fewer than 12,000 titles would be handed out in St Elizabeth within a year.

LAMP's project director in the Office of the Prime Minister, Gloria Brown, said the programme will be extended to St Mary, St Ann and Portland, while Jamaica should be blanketed within 10 years.

noel.thompson@gleanerjm.com

2 x 8