Sascha Wil­son

Sev­er­al ex-Ca­roni work­ers protest­ed in front of the Nu­trim­ix Hatch­ery com­pound in Cou­va yes­ter­day, hop­ing to get the at­ten­tion of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley who was at­tend­ing the of­fi­cial open­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

In­stead, the Prime Min­is­ter’s con­voy drove past the pro­test­ers and head­ed in­to the com­pound at Rivulet Road.

Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ram­barat and Trade Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon were al­so at the event.

“We want we land now,” chant­ed the work­ers who were of­fered Vol­un­tary Sep­a­ra­tion Em­ploy­ment Pack­ages (VSEP) af­ter Ca­roni (1975) Ltd was shut down by the gov­ern­ment on Au­gust 1, 2003.

Among the ben­e­fits of­fered was two-acre agri­cul­tur­al plots, but 19 years lat­er many for­mer work­ers are still wait­ing for their land.

Hold­ing a plac­ard, 73-year-old Chano Ma­habir plead­ed with the Prime Min­is­ter to give her the land.

“My hus­band died...he work­ing Ca­roni Lim­it­ed. He died in 2003 in Ca­roni out­ing fire and up now we can’t our land. What the Prime Min­is­ter is do­ing that he can’t give us our land. We need it. The work­ers are dy­ing and go­ing. We need we land now. Peo­ple have nowhere to live peo­ple want the land to build a house to live. The Prime Min­is­ter should do some­thing and give us our land...Prime Min­is­ter we want we land now Prime Min­is­ter. We plead­ing with you to give us our land please,” she begged.

Armed police officers stand guard outside Nurtrimix Hatchery compound in Couva, during ex-Caroni 1975 workers protest, yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Ex-Ca­roni work­er Steven Ramkissoon said they sim­ply want to know how long they have to wait again for the land.

“Nine­teen years we have been wait­ing for our land,” he lament­ed, adding, “We just want in­for­ma­tion as to how long we have to wait again. The gen­er­al pub­lic need to un­der­stand what is our po­si­tion. This is not a hand­out. It is not a gift. It is an en­ti­tle­ment so we just need an­swers.” Cal­i­for­nia/Point Lisas coun­cil­lor Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Ma­haraj who is al­so an ex-Ca­roni work­er added, “They (ex-work­ers) have been call­ing on me with tears in their eyes. They have lost their fam­i­ly, their fa­ther and moth­er who worked in the sug­ar in­dus­try and the chil­dren have not ben­e­fit­ed from the VSEP pack­age.”

Lament­ing that 50 per cent of the peo­ple who were ex­pect­ing the VSEP en­ti­tle­ment have died, he ques­tioned, “Where is the jus­tice?”

Re­spond­ing to the work­ers’ com­plaints, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat told Guardian Me­dia via What­sapp Mes­sen­ger that the mat­ter fell un­der the Es­tate Man­age­ment and Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd (EM­BD).

“I have asked them to check on the sta­tus of the de­liv­ery of the 441 plots,” the min­is­ter wrote.