Shal­iza Has­sanali

Work on an ex­ten­sion of the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way to by­pass Va­len­cia Junc­tion has not yet start­ed, but the $100 mil­lion project is al­ready em­broiled in con­tro­ver­sy.Squat­ters at KP Lands, Va­len­cia, claim they were not con­sult­ed by the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment about the work which will bring an end to years of con­ges­tion at Va­len­cia Junc­tion. They are wor­ried that they could lose their homes, or be re­lo­cat­ed once con­struc­tion of the road­way be­gins.

The three-kilo­me­tre stretch of by­pass will be­gin at An­tigua Road, Va­len­cia and end at Kan­galee Street, 100 me­tres east of the junc­tion. The land is be­ing pre­pared by the Lands Set­tle­ment Agency (LSA) and the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture is re­spon­si­ble for the project.Last Wednes­day, sev­er­al of the squat­ters, who live on for­est re­serve lands, met to vent their feel­ings.

Spokesman Wen­dell "Bigs" Su­perville said some were re­cent­ly awak­ened by the sound of heavy ma­chin­ery grad­ing lands at the front, back and sides of their homes in prepa­ra­tion for the road­way. They al­so no­ticed that stakes had been placed in the ground along Sap­phire and Topaz dri­ves in line with some of their homes.The pick­ets mark where work is ex­pect­ed to be done.

A Sun­day Guardian re­porter vis­it­ing the area ob­served that the land grad­ing end­ed on the bank of a riv­er close to the squat­ters' homes. How­ev­er, both the LSA and Min­istry de­nied be­ing in­volved.The squat­ters are con­fused about whom is re­spon­si­ble.Su­perville said sev­er­al of the 100 homes in the set­tle­ment will have to be de­mol­ished.He said work­ers on the site told them they would be re­lo­cat­ed to Kan­galee Street, an area where they said there is no wa­ter, roads and elec­tric­i­ty and was plagued with crime and vi­o­lence.

"Miss, no­body con­sult­ed with us about this by­pass, no­body," Su­perville said."They not even say­ing if we would have to move from here and if so, where they would put us."Su­perville said of­fi­cials of the rel­e­vant agen­cies met with the res­i­dents of Kan­galee Street but not with them.Vil­lagers John Lewis, Richard Year­wood, Nicole Bruce and Kevon By­ron sup­port­ed Su­perville's claims.

Some squat­ters ad­mit­ted that they con­front­ed a work crew last week af­ter they de­stroyed crops plant­ed by farmer Bri­an Bartholomew.Bartholomew said he re­gret­ted the day he vot­ed for the PP."They got my vote be­cause I thought they were go­ing to reg­u­larise us," he said.Lewis said he too was dis­ap­point­ed and felt be­trayed."Af­ter what hap­pen here, that is it with me."

The squat­ters ad­mit­ted that the area was once a PNM strong­hold but be­cause of ne­glect they vot­ed for the PP."They don't re­alise that they could end up in the same kha­ki pants as the PNM."Lewis said the PNM tried to re­lo­cate them in 2006 but they had ob­ject­ed."Look what hap­pen to them four years lat­er. The peo­ple vot­ed the PNM out."

Pro­gramme man­ag­er of the Pro­gramme for Up­grad­ing Roads Ef­fi­cien­cy (Pure) Hay­den Phillip said the res­i­dents were con­sult­ed and ex­pressed sur­prise at their claims.Phillip said for years res­i­dents of KP Lands and Kan­galee have been squat­ting on the re­serve which is an "en­vi­ron­men­tal sen­si­tive area." He said talks be­tween the LSA and res­i­dents about reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion had been go­ing on "I don't know for how long."

In­sist­ing that the road­way was not a ma­jor high­way to Man­zanil­la but an in­ter­im so­lu­tion, Phillip said it was pro­posed that the re­serve be used as a buffer zone on one side, with the res­i­dents oc­cu­py­ing the oth­er.The buffer, Phillip ex­plained, will de­ter peo­ple from squat­ting and dam­ag­ing the land.Two bridges will be con­struct­ed, he said and the es­ti­mat­ed cost of the project is $100 mil­lion.

Phillip said a con­tract has not yet been award­ed and the min­istry did not give any di­rec­tives to start pre­lim­i­nary work."We will be skirt­ing the pro­tect­ed lands be­cause you are not sup­posed to build on it. We will fence the en­tire area there, so peo­ple will not go be­yond a cer­tain point be­cause they are dam­ag­ing the eco-sys­tem."

Told that the res­i­dents felt the by­pass was a po­lit­i­cal ploy by the Gov­ern­ment to muster votes for the next lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion, Phillip said the road­way was long over­due.He said ini­tial­ly plans were to build a high­way to Man­zanil­la."This high­way was sup­posed to go along Cu­mu­to Road, through San­gre Grande and then Man­zanil­la but things got shelved."Phillip said from next year, any­one dri­ving to San­gre Grande, Man­zanil­la, To­co, or Sans Souci would no longer have "to go to the Va­len­cia Junc­tion."

Phillips said he at­tend­ed a meet­ing last Mon­day with of­fi­cials of the LSA, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, To­co/San­gre Grande MP Dr Ru­pert Grif­fith and the res­i­dents and he knew of three hous­es that were in a di­rect path of the road­way."Through­out all the meet­ings we en­sured that noth­ing would be done un­less we have con­sul­ta­tion with the peo­ple. In that meet­ing on Mon­day we had an agree­ment that they will al­low us to come and do our soil tests."

On Thurs­day, CEO of the LSA Haz­ar Ho­sein said be­fore his agency re­lo­cates any­one, they must first have dis­cus­sion with Pure.Ho­sein said six res­i­dents of Kan­galee Street were to be re­lo­cat­ed "in the same area." With re­gards to KP Lands, he said he had to get clar­i­fi­ca­tion on the num­ber of peo­ple who will be af­fect­ed.Ho­sein promised to send a team on the site to in­ves­ti­gate what work was be­ing done in the area."I need to know what lands are be­ing cleared. I have to find out."

He said if the res­i­dents have to be re­lo­cat­ed, the LSA would find an area close to where they live "to cause min­i­mal dis­rup­tions".Ho­sein could not say how many squat­ters will be re­lo­cat­ed.Chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Kesh­war Ma­haraj said as far as he knows there was di­a­logue among all par­ties in­volved.

"I find it strange that these guys com­ing to say so now. I am not aware that hous­es on KP Lands would be af­fect­ed be­cause that was not in the plan...that the road­way would af­fect hous­es," he said.