RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram says he will meet with farm­ers from the Re­trench Es­tate fol­low­ing claims that a pri­vate con­trac­tor and a for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter are in­volved in ef­forts to re­move them from lands used for cul­ti­va­tion.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp, Rati­ram said he would de­fer com­ment­ing on the dis­pute un­til he se­cured a meet­ing with the farm­ers.

Led by pres­i­dent Nigel Bowen, the farm­ers are seek­ing to have leas­es for a 70-acre par­cel they have been cul­ti­vat­ing for over three decades. The lands are sit­u­at­ed be­tween the M2 Ring Road and the Solomon Ho­choy High­way near the old Ca­roni 1975 Lim­it­ed airstrip.

Bowen told Guardian Me­dia he was grate­ful for the meet­ing, say­ing they had been try­ing to get jus­tice since Jan­u­ary, when he was told that his land ap­pli­ca­tion was not in the sys­tem. Bowen said he had a ver­i­fi­ca­tion code as well as a cadas­tral, which had his name on it.

He said that in April, the con­trac­tor bull­dozed ac­tive farm­lands and lat­er at­tempt­ed to re­lo­cate them with a com­pen­sa­tion of­fer. Bowen said he was ar­rest­ed af­ter he tried to stop the ex­ca­va­tion and has since re­quest­ed a for­mal in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the is­suance of leas­es for those ac­tive­ly us­ing the land.

An­oth­er farmer, Ma­hase Samuel, was recog­nised as an oc­cu­pant of the land since at least 2008. Samuel con­firmed he has cul­ti­vat­ed crops on the land since 2002.

Gar­rett Greenidge, vice pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion, said the con­trac­tor claimed he was award­ed 20 acres by a pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion. Greenidge said this land in­clud­ed fields in use by cur­rent farm­ers.

Farm­ers said they held mul­ti­ple meet­ings with the con­trac­tor be­fore the last elec­tion, with no out­come. They re­port­ed the is­sue to sev­er­al gov­ern­ment of­fices, in­clud­ing the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and the Om­buds­man, but said they had not re­ceived a re­sponse from the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands, Paula Drakes.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Drakes for a com­ment, but she did not re­spond to calls or What­sApp mes­sages.

Last week, the farm­ers said, the con­trac­tor al­leged­ly re­turned with an of­fer to re­lo­cate them to a sep­a­rate five-acre par­cel, which they re­ject­ed.

The as­so­ci­a­tion, com­pris­ing 30 farm­ers, has not pur­sued le­gal ac­tion but is seek­ing in­ter­ven­tion from the min­istry. They are ask­ing for for­mal leas­es, com­pen­sa­tion for dam­ages, and an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter.