Expropriated land and rent laws

I have been reading about projects the government has on the drawing board and which are meant to absorb the lion's share of the hefty grant Malta will be receiving from the European Union.

If part of these funds were to be directed to finance the construction and/or the upgrading of public roads, it would be logical and fair, first to pay for the land, which not only has been expropriated but has also been turned into major thoroughfares many years ago, ad majorem popoli commoditatem, at the expense of private ownership. The following is a case in point.

Over 50 years ago the Lands Department expropriated a tract of land that belonged to my late uncle, whom I inherited together with others. As soon as the said land was expropriated, or probably even before, the Public Works Department passed through it what today is considered one of the major and very busy trunk roads.

In spite of the very long time that has elapsed since the expropriation of the said land, the government has not considered it morally justified yet that the present owners of the land be compensated for the expropriation. I have strong reasons to believe that this is not an isolated case. There are many others whom the government has deemed fit to ignore with impunity.

After pursuing this matter for many years I was told, just about one year ago, in writing by the Lands Department, that there were no funds available for expropriations made prior to 1993, and that, for the time being, the department only pays those owners of lands that were expropriated after 1993.

Such degree of social injustice is comparable to that of the "old rents law of 1939". Common sense dictates that when the interest of the citizens is trampled over in this despicable manner by government ministries, politicians across the board suffer in no uncertain way. In their search for support for positions of power at those critical times that constitutionally come around every four or five years, they encounter consequential disappointments.

Therefore, I appeal to the authorities concerned to give both the matter about expropriated lands and the old rents law the importance they deserve.

After all, these two issues do not constitute a request for increase in salaries or in some tariffs, or for an increase in the selling prices of some essential commodities, which, more often than not, are comparatively quickly granted by the government after claims and strikes are made or called by trade unions.

These matters constitute, in one case, overdue redress for depriving individuals of their properties without adequate compensation within reasonable time; in the other case, restoration of property owners to the legitimate position in which they were prior to 1939, by liberalising the present rates and, if necessary, subsidising those tenants who would not afford the revised rents by channelling back to them an adequate part of the income tax that landlords would be paying the government on the same rents.