Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Land and Ma­rine Re­sources Min­is­ter Jairam Seemu­n­gal says he ask Cab­i­net to es­tab­lish a po­lice unit to stop il­le­gal oc­cu­pa­tion of state lands by squat­ter. He said in the past two weeks his min­istry had to in­ter­vene in 75 ar­eas to deal with squat­ters en­croach­ing on state lands.The min­is­ter said squat­ting is still a chal­lenge for his min­istry, which al­so has to man­age some 60,000 reg­u­larised squat­ters.

"We are now putting a lot of po­lices and pro­ce­dures in place to deal with (squat­ting). Man­pow­er has al­ways been an is­sue in the min­istry and now we in­creas­ing for the very first time the man­pow­er in the min­istry to deal with it," he said in an in­ter­view at Paria Suites, La Ro­main yes­ter­day fol­low­ing a func­tion to dis­trib­ute 76 lots to squat­ters af­fect­ed by con­struc­tion of the San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin High­way.

Seemu­n­gal urged the squat­ters, who were giv­en cer­tifi­cates of land tenure for lots at Pic­ton Phase 2 Set­tle­ment, not to sell their lots or let any­one fool them in­to giv­ing away their land."Use the land wise­ly," he said.The min­is­ter lat­er said: "A lot of peo­ple over the last eight to ten years felt that they could go on state lands and just en­croach and oc­cu­py and no one is look­ing at it," he said.

"I will be tak­ing a note to Cab­i­net to seek some form of po­lice squad that will work along with the min­istry (that) will be deal­ing... with the peo­ple who feel that all these lands are there for grabs."Seemu­n­gal said Cab­i­net had ap­proved re­lo­ca­tion of 162 squat­ters af­fect­ed by the high­way con­struc­tion.

Sta­tus change for squat­ters

Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Dr Sura­jrat­tan Ram­bachan told the squat­ters they have been giv­en a great op­por­tu­ni­ty to im­prove their sta­tus which has been up­lift­ed from squat­ter to land own­er.He said the land they have been giv­en is val­ued at $200,000 and will ap­pre­ci­ate to $500,000 and more in years to come."You have been giv­en a land pay­ment of $50,000 over the next 30 years," he said.

Ram­bachan said each squat­ter will pay $1750 an­nu­al­ly for the next 30 years and the lease will be re­newed at the end of that pe­ri­od. The squat­ters have the op­tion of ap­proach­ing the T&T Mort­gage Fi­nance for fund­ing to con­struct their homes and will be el­i­gi­ble for a two per­cent in­ter­est rate.

Among the ben­e­fi­cia­ries yes­ter­day was Brid­mo­han Roop­nar­ine Singh, 69, and his wife Sam­daye Mo­hanie Bridge­mo­han, 70, of Su­per Ex­ten­sion, Salt­mine Trace, Fyz­abad, ex­pressed joy at re­ceiv­ing their lot of land. Singh said when they were told they would have to move to make way for the high­way they were wor­ried.

"We are grate­ful that we have some­where to live. We are hap­py the Prime Min­is­ter kept her promise. She said she not go­ing to put no­body on the road and she kept her word," Singh said, with tears in his eyes.How­ev­er Jas­so­dra Singh, 57, of St Mary's Vil­lage Oropouche, said she was not pleased that she has to move since she has been liv­ing in that area for the last 20 years."It is un­com­fort­able and heart­break­ing. At this age it is very hard to move but we have ac­cept it for the high­way," she said.