Land Clinic Goes to Price Barracks
Since 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources has been going across the country setting up land clinics. For years, residents have been complaining about the delays in processes at the Lands Department in Belmopan and the mobile clinic has been established to address just that. Day one of a land clinic was at the Price Barracks where soldiers and law enforcement officers were being dealt with. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Over a dozen land clinics have been successfully carried out since Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde embarked on bringing the services of the Lands Department to various communities. Today, the men and women of the Belize Defence Force were the focus of the clinic.
Cordel Hyde
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
“A few months ago at our Sand Hill land clinic, the B.D.F. came out in droves; must have been a couple buses of them. And so we promised that they don’t need to subject themselves to that; we will bring a special operation for them here. I don’t think they believed and we put it off a couple of times, but we are here and it is about giving them a special treatment because what we are going to do is we are issuing purchase price approvals for them and then they are going to pay – because they’ve said that they have the money to pay. And so they are paying immediately and applying for title immediately and so we are hoping that by tomorrow to issue the title to these folks.”
It is a welcoming gesture, says Minister of National Security Florencio Marin Junior, but in the future members of the Belize Coast Guard will also be engaged in a similar land clinic.
Florencio Marin Jr.
Florencio Marin Jr., Minister of National Security
“I’m grateful to Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde because if you notice he moves around the whole country. He noh just move necessarily to the divisions, but he also comes to the Belize Defence Force. We are working with him as well in the proximate future to get him to the [Belize] coast guard. So I can tell you that this will be a huge relief for a lot of soldiers between today and tomorrow.”
Over two hundred soldiers and civilian workers with the B.D.F. will be assisted over the two days. Minister Hyde says that one hundred and fifty police officers will also be assisted – not to mention public officers, teachers, nurses and others.
Cordel Hyde
“We are hoping that by tomorrow we will have like a hundred and fifty purchase approvals for our police officers so that they don’t get jealous. We have a firm outstanding commitment to our police officers, our nurses and medical and dental people, workers from NICH, stevedores and we do have some outstanding ones for the teachers; we’ve issued some hundreds to them already. Just last night, I was quarrelling with Elena about how amny we have outstanding for them, but we have given them a firm commitment that by the end of the year, we would have delivered all that we’ve promised them. I hope I didn’t forget the public officers; I can’t forget the public officers, but by the end of the year. I am keeping my fingers crossed.”
Reporter
“We know that land is a finite resource and there is a lot of competition for it. How hard is it to find land for people like the B.D.F. soldiers and the police officers and the teachers?”
Cordel Hyde
“It’s hard and it isn’t in the sense that we have this firm commitment so whenever we come upon land, we do our best to prioritize these persons who have given tremendous service to the country over years. I don’t think they’ve really been prioritized before in this kind of yea and so we are trying to make good on that.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
