Farmers have halted protests following "substantial" headway and "enormous" progress in discussions yesterday with Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal and Food Production Minister Vasant Bharath. The farmers have agreed to examine relocation sites offered by the State. Headway came in a two-hour meeting at Bharath's ministry yesterday. Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar, offering legal advice, was part of Government's team. Following the conference, T&T Sheep and Goats Farmers' Association president Shiraz Khan confirmed there had been "substantial headway" while Moonilal said there had been "enormous progress."
The development came after almost two weeks of protest following the destruction of farmers' crops on lands at Chaguanas and D'Abadie by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) last week Monday.
Protests culminated with a noisy confrontation, outside the HDC's Port-of-Spain office on Wednesday, by farmers with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Farmers went into yesterday's meeting maintaining their initial four demands for compensation, land with tenure, a land use policy and an apology from Moonilal. Emerging post-meeting, Khan said: "Protests will halt and we will continue consultations. Ministers have agreed to go on Saturday morning to visit the sites where crops were destroyed and see for themselves and talks will continue from there."
Farmers also agreed to visit alternative relocation sites at Egypt Village on Saturday. Moonilal, looking more relaxed than after last week's initial meeting with farmers, said: "This afternoon's meeting was very cordial. We made enormous progress. Farmers have made sound proposals on the way forward, not just on the immediate challenge but the agricultural sector. "I'm very optimistic we'll arrive at the win-win situation we always strive for," he said, thanking farmers. Bharath added: "It was an extremely cordial meeting. You don't see any disgruntled faces here. "We've moved along significantly to ensure we come to the best possible resolution for all. There's need for food and housing. They're not competing interests."
Khan told reporters: "We're not looking for confrontation. If we continue to march you all won't have food and we won't have money.
"But we'll continue to fight for our rights and ensure we don't take anything that is just given without just resolution for farmers. "We're happy with discussions going forward. We'll go back to farmers with the package offered and we'll visit the respective sites on Saturday as well as the alternative locations offered and we'll return to the ministry with proposals from farmers." He said packages would not be given to any ministry without farmers' input. Government has promised that a note would go to Cabinet in three weeks on the land use policy and farmers would continue working with the relevant ministries on that. Plans also would be examined to prevent a recurrence of last week Monday's crop destruction by the HDC, it was stated.
Khan said bulldozing at Egypt Village was illegal and farmers still held legal options where that was concerned and was seeking advice on it. He said compensation costs have not been assessed yet but farmers wanted actual market value. Khan's views were corroborated by Agricultural Society president Dhanoo Sookoo. Khan said farmers still wanted an apology from Moonilal and hoped the Prime Minister "can facilitate us with further talks on that." When asked if he would apologise, Moonilal said, with a laugh:
"Let's say we're continuing dialogue. We have to examine the time. I think there was a limit. I don't know if the time has expired but let's do the visits on Saturday (tomorrow)."
Farmers denied UNC chairman Jack Warner's "thuggery" claims about their behaviour towards the Prime Minister during Wednesday's protests. Khan said: "Mr Warner should look at the tape. You reporters were there. You know we didn't do what he claims. We deserve an apology from Mr Warner." Sookoo added: "Nobody touched the Prime Minister. We need her. Mr Warner was unfortunately misinformed. She had security all around her." Ramadhar, commenting on the Warner allegations, said: "What happened at today's meeting was very healthy and we must move on from that towards healing this issue and must therefore be careful we don't create hurt feelings by what we say." He added: "T&T is far too small. We need each other. Whatever we do, we must work in harmony. Many farmers walked with us, worked with us, campaigned with us, this is our people. All T&T benefits from their work."