SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Crim­i­nal el­e­ments have been ex­pelled from Cashew Gar­dens in cen­tral Trinidad, ac­cord­ing to Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh, the Ca­roni Cen­tral MP and Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment. Ra­mad­hars­ingh was at the time speak­ing with the me­dia when he toured Cashew Gar­dens yes­ter­day morn­ing. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said when the PP gov­ern­ment came in­to pow­er some no­table crim­i­nal el­e­ments were in­vad­ing the com­mu­ni­ty and squat­ting on state lands. He said the land grab­bers were re­moved while in­fra­struc­ture in the area was up­grad­ed, mak­ing way for the dis­tri­b­u­tion of land and the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of squat­ters in the area.

Ra­mad­hars­ingh said squat­ters in the area would start un­der­go­ing the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion process by mid-March. He said plots would be hand­ed out based on a pri­or­i­ty list from the Land Set­tle­ment Agency. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said he plans to merge the HIV aware­ness arm of his agency with a pro­gramme that deals with non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases. He said while HIV takes a toll in some rur­al com­mu­ni­ties and ar­eas along the east-west cor­ri­dor, di­a­betes and hy­per­ten­sion re­main the sec­ond largest killer in South and Cen­tral Trinidad. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said his min­istry would be seek­ing to raise aware­ness of these dis­eases in the com­ing months in a bid to have in­di­vid­u­als live a healthy lifestyle.