100 Land Grants Handed Over - Minister Saddam Hosein Promises System Overhaul
Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein said the Government is modernising the system for the approval of lands in Trinidad and Tobago.
Minister Hosein was addressing former Caroni (1975) Limited workers at a handover ceremony of 100 land grant certificates on Friday.
As he lamented the lengthy process of getting land approvals, approving and distributing State grants and the method to prepare deeds and other title documents, he outlined the steps the Government is taking to modernise the system.
« The vision is that a time must come that in one day, or the most, one week, an entire land transaction must be completed. It shouldn’t be taking months upon months. I worked together with all of the divisions under my Ministry, including the Office of the Attorney General, and I took a note to the Cabinet on the 9th of September 2025, and under the leadership of the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC, our Prime Minister, we have now changed the format. A simple fix, you know, we have changed the format for the way in which we issue State grants. »
Minister Hosein noted that currently a typewriter and a specialised printer are used to prepare the land grants and title deeds. He said this process will be updated with the use of digital systems.
« We are moving towards a digital age. The Registrar General would have given you all of the details in terms of having the various offices and platforms speak to each other, so therefore we would not have to encounter this problem. »
The Land and Legal Affairs Minister added that land approvals for residential or commercial use are another element in the process which will be addressed.
« The Government took a decision very recently that we have found that there is an office called the Chief Medical Officer of Health that plays a part in the approval process, and I am told, and we were advised that sometimes these approvals take up to two years. The Government took a decision to remove that completely from the system. Remove it because you have the EMA, you have the Corporation and you have other bodies doing the exact same work as the CMOH. »
Recipient Nizam Ramdath said his land grant, like many others, involved a lengthy wait.
« What I realised today, this was prepared since 2014, and every time you went to inquire about it after that, right, they couldn’t tell you anything. They couldn’t find anything. But I have a deed in my hand that was prepared since 2014. I went back to them late last year, and in a matter of months I received the deed today. »
The recipients were from various parts of Trinidad, including Chaguanas, California, Diamond Village, Barrackpore, Princes Town and La Romaine.
