GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Government will be granting a waiver in gun-licensing fees for Amerindians who are dependent on the weapons for hunting to fend off animals damaging their farms.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, who made the announcement at a post-Cabinet press briefing Wednesday, said the Government has also decided to return guns that were handed over to the police by Amerindians in the interior area during the gun amnesty programme.

Over the past few months, the Government has been receiving mounting concerns from Amerindian leaders about the impact the gun amnesty is taking on their communities.

Many of them complained that their farms were left to the mercy of animals destroying their livestock and crops, and they could not scare the animals off after they turned in their guns during the illegal gun amnesty.

Those complaints played a key role in the decision by the Government.

The Administration still intends to regularise the system regarding guns for hunting purposes.

During the budget debates, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party had also called for a waiver in the gun-licensing fees for the Amerindians who depend on the weapons for their hunting and protection in the interior regions.