The Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), a member of the People's Partnership coalition, is calling on the Government to immediately resolve the issue of payment to farmers in central and east Trinidad whose crops were bulldozed by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC). The movement's public relations officer Gregory Fernandez has called for "a timely resolution" of the ongoing impasse between farmers and "elements of the People's Partnership Government." Fernandez, in the release, said: "It is truly an unnecessary antagonism for this issue to not have been resolved more expeditiously. The initial action by the state saw an unprecedented mobilisation of our nation's farmers.
"It is the view of the MSJ that the growing intensity and frequency of sectorial mobilisation against the current Government must be taken seriously. "There are elements of the Government who seem to be taking the Government on a collision course with those citizens to whom it has a responsibility to serve."
He pointed out that the agreement to compensate farmers had been articulated publicly so it must be honoured. He further noted that claims by some farmers that they had not been fully compensated has not been denied but rather reduced to a debate on responsibility for the payment. Fernandez said the situation did not auger well for the confidence reposed in the PP administration by the majority of the electorate, including members of the farming community.
He added: "The MSJ therefore calls on the Government to immediately resolve the issue of payment to the affected farmers and to publicly indicate which Ministry has been the designated responsibility for such. "Furthermore in the absence of a national land use policy the Government must immediately identify those farmers who have been attempting to have leases renewed and the same should be afforded letters of comfort in the shortest possible time," Fernandez said.
