A number of residents in the parishes of Clarendon and Manchester are yet to receive titles from General Alumina Jamaica (formerly Jamalco) for the land on which they have been relocated, several years after selling their land to the bauxite company to be used for mining, according to Land and Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill.

"We will negotiate to engage all bauxite companies until this vexed issue is resolved," the minister said in his contribution to the 2015/16 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. The minister said that often landowners have to first give the bauxite company registered titles for the lands that were sold to the company.

Pickersgill informed the House that Government was in negotiation with the bauxite company to enter into an arrangement to "update and clarify" just over 3,000 parcels of land in those parishes, noting that the ministry has started training the company's staff in processing applications for titles.

Pickersgill explained that the Government, in 2011, had to make a similar arrangement with Noranda Bauxite Company, and that based on those negotiations the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP) is now seeking to produce titles for 100 parcels of land, beginning in St Ann.

In the meantime, he said that the ministry has set up adjudication committees in Narine Lands, St Catherine; Rose Town, in St Andrew; and at four locations in St Elizabeth to rectify the situation facing many poor Jamaicans who cannot afford the professional fees to obtain their titles. This process is expected to reduce the length of time for settling land titles from 12 to 30 years.

"They are not able to produce any documents showing their ownership in spite of living on, and being in possession of family land, for many years," he said. The adjudication committees will deliberate on the rights and interests of applicants and provide a written record of the decisions that are made. This record can then be used by landowners to support their application to register the land. The minister said, in another two months, similar committees are to be set up in Clarendon and Manchester.

The initiative harks back to a proposal by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding for the establishment of community land tribunals, which he said would settle some of the disputes over landownership involving many poor Jamaicans, particularly those in rural communities.

According to Pickersgill, the Government still holds thousands of titles for land settlement schemes for landowners and their beneficiaries who have not come forward. He urged members of parliament to assist with locating those people. He said the National Land Agency is expected to prepare 300 duplicate certificates of title for people in this category of schemes.