Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

The Min­istry of Jus­tice has no plans of tak­ing some 62 acres of Carlsen Field land for the con­struc­tion of a cour­t­house. The fa­cil­i­ty would in­stead be built on just 15 acres of land. The min­istry has been ac­cused of mov­ing in on arable farm­ing lands in the area.

But yes­ter­day Jus­tice Min­is­ter Her­bert Vol­ney dis­missed the mis­con­cep­tion. Cab­i­net has ap­proved con­struc­tion of four ju­di­cial cen­tres to be built in:

• Carlsen Field

• San­gre Grande

• Siparia

• Trinci­ty

The state-of-the-art build­ings would com­prise four build­ings for High and Mag­is­trate courts. Plans are al­so on stream to con­struct a sim­i­lar build­ing in To­ba­go in 2013. Vol­ney said the move was geared at tak­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tion of crim­i­nal jus­tice to peo­ple in the re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties.

The min­is­ter said the con­cept which be­gan un­der the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion to build a mega com­plex in Trinci­ty was re­vised. "The Gov­ern­ment has a dif­fer­ent pol­i­cy of bring­ing the crim­i­nal jus­tice to peo­ple in the re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties. The iden­ti­fied ar­eas are lands with no heavy farm­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. The land iden­ti­fied at Carlsen Field com­pris­es of 15 acres of land and not 62 acres. The min­istry has nev­er con­sid­ered oc­cu­py­ing 62 acres of land that is a bit of a mis­con­cep­tion," the min­is­ter said.

Vol­ney said three farm­ers oc­cu­py the lands at Carlsen Field. He said the farmer's tenure on the state lands have not been reg­u­larised. "They have been oc­cu­py­ing the lands and do not have the ben­e­fit of any lease. While we recog­nise that they are le­git­i­mate farm­ers and we want to treat with them in a re­spect­ful and hu­mane way."

Mean­while, Vol­ney said Cab­i­net has al­so ap­proved the pur­chase of 12 acres of land for the cour­t­house in San­gre Grande. The pur­chase of lands in Siparia and Trinci­ty are ex­pect­ed to come on stream soon to fa­cil­i­tate the build­ings.