KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

The Gov­ern­ment has dis­missed claims by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) that a state land scan­dal is un­fold­ing.

Speak­ing to sup­port­ers at a PNM pub­lic meet­ing on Mon­day, for­mer hous­ing min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of us­ing a new com­pa­ny, Land­mark TT Prop­er­ties Lim­it­ed, to al­low as­so­ciates to ac­quire state land at “pep­per­corn rates.”

How­ev­er, Min­is­ter of Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Sad­dam Ho­sein flat­ly de­nied the ac­cu­sa­tions, high­light­ing in­stead the Gov­ern­ment’s plans to pro­vide hous­ing for all cit­i­zens.

In her first ap­pear­ance on a PNM plat­form since the lead-up to the gen­er­al elec­tion and her sub­se­quent ill­ness, Robin­son-Reg­is made a fiery come­back.

She said, “Now we are hear­ing about a new com­pa­ny called Land­mark TT Prop­er­ties Lim­it­ed—a state land in­vest­ment and de­vel­op­ment pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship. They say this is to bridge the gap be­tween land avail­abil­i­ty and the in­creas­ing de­mand for un­sub­sidised, high-qual­i­ty hous­ing. In oth­er words, an­oth­er scheme where their rich friends and fi­nanciers can get their hands on state land at pep­per­corn rates.”

Robin­son-Reg­is al­so ques­tioned the le­gal and ad­min­is­tra­tive ba­sis for trans­fer­ring state lands un­der this new struc­ture.

Ho­sein, how­ev­er, told Guardian Me­dia that the lands will be de­vel­oped by pri­vate de­vel­op­ers un­der a prof­it-shar­ing arrange­ment with the State.

“I have no rich friends or fi­nanciers,” Ho­sein said. “Mrs Camille Rose­marie Robin­son-Reg­is should not be talk­ing about fi­nanciers when she failed O’ Lev­el Math­e­mat­ics. What she should ex­plain to the na­tion is how a car raf­fle and bake sale could build a mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar, five-storey Bal­isi­er House while in gov­ern­ment.

“Ad­di­tion­al­ly, she should tell us how com­pa­nies af­fil­i­at­ed with Fos­ter Cum­mings, the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the PNM, earned mil­lions from the HDC while she was Hous­ing Min­is­ter.

“Land­mark TT is a PPP mod­el, where state lands are go­ing to be used for hous­ing for all cit­i­zens. The lands will be de­vel­oped by pri­vate de­vel­op­ers, and there will be a prof­it-shar­ing arrange­ment be­tween the State and the de­vel­op­ers.”