HomeBreaking NewsSteps that could have been Taken to Acquire Land for Hospital

Steps that could have been Taken to Acquire Land for Hospital

Dean Barrow

Steps that could have been Taken to Acquire Land for Hospital

Former P.M. Barrow, himself a seasoned attorney, also outlined the steps that could have been taken to acquire the property in question, including compensation once the land had been vested in the Minister of Natural Resources.

 

Dean Barrow, Attorney-at-law

“The minister, no doubt, after consultation with his cabinet colleagues decides that there is a piece of private property that the government needs to acquire, the minister, having come to that decision will publish a declaration in the gazette notifying of his decision to acquire that particular piece of property.  That notification, that gazette publication will contain all the necessary particulars.  He must publish two declarations but there is an interval of six weeks between the first and the second publication.  That six-week interval must be used by the minister to invite the landowner to negotiate because it is always better if the acquisition can be done by way of a voluntary sale which will make it then not a compulsory acquisition.  More likely than not, while the minister or the authorized officer so designated by the minister must engage in that kind of good faith negotiation process, more likely than not it will come to naught because no doubt the landowner is going to want far more for his or her land than the government is prepared to give.  But once the government has conducted or engaged in that sort of an effort to see whether there can be a voluntary transfer for an agreed price, if that doesn’t work then the minister publishes his second declaration after the intervening period has elapsed.  And immediately after that second declaration is published, the land vests in the minister, in the government and thereafter, it is just a matter of the government carrying out the public purpose which the land now vested in the minister or the government, carrying out the public purpose for which it was acquired.  Of course, there is the question of compensation.”

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