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Caribbean Times 28th Issue

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2 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g<br />

Monday 13th June 2016<br />

Repeal of the Barbuda Land Act coming<br />

By Everton Barnes<br />

The government is giving<br />

serious consideration to<br />

repealing the Barbuda Land<br />

Act which it has described as<br />

a hindrance to the development<br />

of the country.<br />

The announcement came<br />

Sunday during a radio programme<br />

Insight hosted by<br />

Attorney General, Steadroy<br />

Benjamin and also featuring<br />

Prime Minister Gaston<br />

Editor’s Note<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Times</strong> is printed<br />

and published at Woods<br />

Estate/Friars Hill Road.<br />

The Editor is Justin Peters.<br />

Contact: <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Times</strong>,<br />

P.O. Box W2099,<br />

Woods Estate/Friars Hill<br />

Road,<br />

St. John’s,<br />

Antigua.<br />

Tel: (268) 562-8688,<br />

Fax: (268) 562-8685.<br />

Visit us online at our website:<br />

www. caribbeantimes.ag<br />

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Browne. The programme<br />

was part of activities to mark<br />

the second anniversary of<br />

the Antigua and Barbuda Labour<br />

Party’s election victory<br />

of June 12, 2014.<br />

In response to a caller,<br />

Browne announced that repealing<br />

the Barbuda Land<br />

Act is very likely as it was<br />

both a deterrent to development<br />

on the sister as well as<br />

being un-Constitutional.<br />

His comments come as<br />

the Barbuda People’s Movement<br />

has again gone to the<br />

courts in a bid to stop the<br />

proposed Paradise Found<br />

development planned for the<br />

now defunct K-Club properties.<br />

The prime minister said<br />

it is inconceivable that his<br />

government that has been so<br />

progressive on environmental<br />

issues would allow any<br />

development to wantonly<br />

cont’d from pg 1<br />

million dollars in new equipment for<br />

the Mount St John’s Hospital, the stabilization<br />

of the economy, on-time<br />

payments of government salaries and<br />

wages, regular payments to Social<br />

Security, control of government expenditure,<br />

reduction of debt to GDP,<br />

on-going digitizing of government<br />

services, the government’s housing<br />

development programme, establishing<br />

a venture capital facility at the Antigua<br />

and Barbuda Development Bank<br />

and much more.<br />

During the programme, many<br />

people called in to express their confidence<br />

in the government and their<br />

continued faith in the policies being<br />

implemented by PM Browne and his<br />

Cabinet.<br />

destroy the environment of<br />

the country. “We have allocated<br />

some $100 million for<br />

renewable energy, passed<br />

the landmark Environmental<br />

Management and Protection<br />

Act, and have adopted other<br />

measures such as the ban on<br />

plastic bags.<br />

“Nobody can question<br />

this government’s commitment<br />

towards safeguarding<br />

the environment,” he declared.<br />

The attorney general said<br />

nothing is going to stand in<br />

the way of the government’s<br />

plans to develop both islands<br />

in its stated desire to<br />

make Antigua and Barbuda<br />

the ‘economic powerhouse<br />

of the Eastern <strong>Caribbean</strong>’.<br />

“If this means repealing the<br />

Barbuda Land Act, it will be<br />

done!” he declared.<br />

PM Browne has repeatedly<br />

maintained that the Barbuda<br />

Land Act passed by the<br />

UPP Administration in 2007<br />

contravenes Section 1 of the<br />

Constitution of Antigua and<br />

Barbuda “which states very<br />

clearly that Antigua and Barbuda<br />

shall be a unitary, sovereign,<br />

democratic state.”<br />

The prime minister said<br />

that since Barbuda is part of<br />

the unitary state of Antigua<br />

and Barbuda as stated in the<br />

Constitution, “provisions in<br />

the Barbuda Land Act cannot<br />

supersede the provisions<br />

of the Constitution.”<br />

Last October, parliament<br />

adopted the Paradise Found<br />

Act which puts the project<br />

outside the scope of the Barbuda<br />

Land Act.<br />

The BPM is using the<br />

provisions of the Barbuda<br />

Land Act as a basis for<br />

their court action aimed at<br />

stopping the Paradise Found<br />

project.

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