Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
A SPECIAL Select Committee of the Senate examining the use of prime agricultural lands wrapped up its deliberations on Wednesday with a draft interim report to be presented to the Senate today.
Among the recommendations agreed on was that the powers of the Minister of Housing, as a corporate sole under the Housing Act, should be repealed.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Norman Grant, welcomed the recommendation which, he said, would also be welcomed by thousands of farmers.
"That provision is a provision whose time has passed, if it was relevant then its relevance now would come into serious question," he said.
Under Section (3) of the Housing Act, the minister responsible for housing "shall be a corporation sole by the name of the Minister of Housing," and "by that name shall have perpetual succession with the capacity to acquire, hold and dispose of land and to the property of whatever kind."
AMENDMENTS RECOMMENDED
The committee has also recommended that the Housing Act and other legislation that empowers the Minister of Housing or any other minister to make planning decisions without reference to the appropriate laws to be amended by the first half of the coming parliamentary year.
The committee is also recommending the curtailing of any formal development plans that would be detrimental to existing irrigation schemes or schemes proposed under the National Irrigation Plan of 1998.
But Government committee member, Senator Delano Franklyn, pointed out that this recommendation should be revised so as to exempt schemes for which permission was already granted to build on these lands.
"Where you have schemes already being granted permission by the appropriate Government body, and where those schemes would result in such difficulties, then those schemes (should) be exempted from what we are trying to do here," he explained.
This was accepted by the committee but Senator Grant pointed out that, where lands have been applied for but approval has yet to be given, those processes should be stopped right away.
The committee also proposed that urgent action be taken to put a stop to squatting and sand mining on irrigated lands.
Senator Grant first raised the matter for the Senate's consideration in February last year.
