The Land Court is now extended up to 2016 while the BLS will have a term of another year which is until 2009.
The president in his letter to the Olbiil Era Kelulau leaders said that the two entities are important in achieving our Constitutional duty to return lands held in public trust back to their proper owners.“This process has clearly taken longer than anyone expected and longer that anyone would prefer. Yet the jobs remain unfinished and it is our duty to make sure that the BLS and Land Court are given the tools to complete it,” the president said.House Bill No. 7-255-SD2, HD1 which is now a law, address other issues in the law that needed fine-tuning.The law will give the Land Court more discretion in prioritizing claims and foregoing meditations that would clearly be unproductive.The new law also allows the Land Court to return incomplete files to the BLS to be completed.The BLS meanwhile will now prohibit the BLS from scheduling monumentations for lands which have previously been monumented and surveyed.The new statute also allows the BLS to require to file monthly progress reports to the president, the Minister of Resources and Development, the chairmen of the relevant committees of both the House of Delegates and the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Delegates and the President of the Senate.The new law also allows for those listed on the Land Acquisition Records –but who have not filed a formal claim- to have their claim filed.The law put in exceptions to land in which the monumentation process has begun, but have yet to be fully adjudicated.“I would like to commend the OEK on the thorough process which it followed in enacting this legislation. By meeting with members of both the executive and judicial branches and soliciting their insight, the OEK was able to get a complete picture of the problem and to craft a well-reasoned solution,” the president said.
