Persons living on state land can no longer apply for prescriptive title, with the passage of an amendment that the government stoutly defended as necessary to protect state property while opposition parties dubbed it unconstitutional.

The Title to Land (Prescription and Limitation) (Amendment) Bill 2011 was yesterday denounced by opposition speakers as “overreaching” and in a lively debate, they pronounced it “unconstitutional” and suggested that it could be challenged in court. The amendment will become law once it is assented to by President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Attorney General Charles Ramson, however, in a scathing riposte, said that the Bill did not violate the spirit or letter of the Constitution, while adding that he…..