Land issue

Letters

I WRITE in regards to the article in Tuesday’s (April 3) issue on Page 6: ‘Land title now gives villages right to deal with illegal tenants’.
The first paragraph goes: “THE Tubumaga Laurina Land Group of Pari village in NCD can now use their Incorporated Land Group (ILG) certificate to claim ownership of their land and charge rentals to those using or settling on it.”
Land is a very sensitive issue and we should be very careful while talking about ILGs and land ownership. Land Registration (Amendment) Act 2009 only allows for a registered land group (ILG) to apply for registration of their customary land.
To my knowledge, an ILG certificate does not guarantee land ownership.
With this certificate, the clan is now recognised as a legal entity as stated by acting Secretary for Lands Oswald Tolopa. It is only a certificate of recognition of the group and does not make you the legitimate owner of the land.
A customary land certificate of title is the legitimate document to prove that an ILG is the owner of the parcel of land.
In short, the processes to acquire a land title is as follows:

  • After receiving an ILG certificate, the ILG will have to go through another process called the Voluntary Customary Land Registration (VCLR), in which registered surveyors are engaged to survey the customary land to draw up a draft survey plan (map) of the particular land;
  • The draft plan is then submitted with the VCLR application to the office of the director of customary land;
  • A notice will be published in the dailies and the National Gazette by the director at the cost of the ILG of the Intention to Conduct Land Investigation Report (LIR);
  • A duration period will be 30 days for objections to be raised;
  • The LIR is conducted and if no disputes, it is referred for processing at the office of the director of customary land;
  • After verification, the director submits the proposed plan to the Office of the Surveyor-General for the proposed plan for examination and gives notice for publication in the dailies for a 90-day objection period;
  • After the 90 day-objection period (if no objections), the director shall forward a copy of the certified plan to the Surveyor-General for registration of the final plan;
  • After the plan is registered, a customary land title is created and referred to the Minister for Lands and Physical Planning to approve the title;
  • Once the certificate of title is approved, the registrar of titles issues to the ILG chairman, the owners’ copy of the customary land group title in the name of the ILG; and
  • The ILG now with this certificate of title arethe legitimate landowners.

I stand to be corrected.

Enoch Zorro
Madang