Food Production Minister Vasant Bharath and COP vice chairman Vernon de Lima joined farmers' continuing protest yesterday, a day after Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal said he was pressing on with housing projects on farmers' land at D'Abadie and Chaguanas."Stay strong, you have a just cause, "Bharath said after he joined farmers at the tailend of their protest at Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.He expressed solidarity with them after sitting with Moonilal and farmers at a meeting on Thursday to try and resolve the issue after their crops were bulldozed on Monday to make way for housing projects.Bharath said he didn't care about the consequences of supporting the farmers. "This means more to me than the consequences," he added.
De Lima also said: "PP manifesto's page 50 states 'respect for agriculture, farmers and the land'. Government has breached this first rule. The Prime Minister must say something on this at this point."Farmers from East, South and Central, gathered at the square calling for Moonilal's removal.On Thursday they accepted compensation offers but rejected relocation sites Moonilal had offered. They also denounced his refusal to apologise for the bulldozing episode.After meeting at the square yesterday, they walked through Port-of-Spain to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) followed by a convoy of tractors.
Farmers delivered a letter to the PM's security adviser, Gary Griffith. seeking an urgent meeting on their issue with the PM on her return from Brazil.OPM officials said the Prime Minister was expected home between today and Monday. They could not say exactly when since they said she was travelling by chartered aircraft.Bharath joined farmers at the square after they returned from the OPM .
He said he felt compelled to since they had become his extended family as he worked with them in the agricultural sector.Saying he was not there to criticise Government or his colleagues, Bharath, however, said he also had stood against bulldozers in Spring Village in 2008 when the past administration also had tried to clear land.Bharath noted that other countries currently were conserving food supplies.He added: "It is, therefore, sacrilege at a time like this to destroy food. Even though I may be the lone voice.
"I will take back that voice to the Cabinet and Prime Minister when she returns to plead your case because it is farmers who feed T&T,"I will make it my business to speak with her and do my best to convey your views, and that of right-thinking people, to the Cabinet." He said in planning housing in a country as small as T&T, the agricultural sector must have a say.COP executive member, Wendell Eversely, and other members also attended. De Lima said: "It's absolutely unacceptable for these crops to be destroyed when food prices are so high. Any right-thinking person will be offended. We have to bring it to the public's attention and who don't like that, chew that!"
He noted PP's manifesto pages on agriculture and housing, adding:
"None of this has been done, yet they just march in and destroy people's crops. How in God's name can you do that when the food is being grown for the public. It's a political anomaly."De Lima said COP members were not bound by collective Cabinet responsibility, had a right to speak on issues and could not allow them to fester in the new Government.He asked: "If we removed plans for the smelter and rapid rail why didn't we remove these (housing) projects planned by PNM also? Why continue things we voted against?"