RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Land­grab­bers have been giv­en a warn­ing that they will face pros­e­cu­tion and fines if they use the COVID-19 stay-at-home pe­ri­od to build il­le­gal struc­tures on State land.

This af­ter po­lice went to a con­struc­tion site at Welling­ton Road, Debe and or­dered a builder to cease all con­struc­tion.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene sev­er­al Venezue­lan labour­ers and three lo­cals were do­ing work on the site. The Venezue­lans took cov­er when the Guardian be­gan film­ing. One of the lo­cal men shout­ed, “No pic­tures. Don’t take no pic­tures here.”

Asked by this re­porter whether he had per­mis­sion to build on the land, the man said “yes.” When asked for his name and phone num­ber so the Guardian can ver­i­fy, the man said, “999. Go call that.”

Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Clarence Ramb­harat who was con­tact­ed said the mat­ter will be in­ves­ti­gat­ed im­me­di­ate­ly.

“I have asked the Com­mis­sion­er of State Land to take im­me­di­ate ac­tion. Peo­ple use long week­ends and hol­i­days to do these things,” he said.

He added, “I was at the Rio Claro Food Crop project yes­ter­day. I saw a house con­struc­tion that I re­port­ed since Ju­ly 2018 when the land was be­ing cut, now a com­plete dwelling that is oc­cu­pied. I have to en­sure that the per­son is re­moved.”

Chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Dr Allen Sam­my said the lands which are di­rect­ly op­po­site the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Pe­nal/ Debe cam­pus was valu­able and should be used to boost lo­cal tourism. The lands have been un­der siege from land grab­bers over the past decade when the con­struc­tion of the Uni­ver­si­ty be­gan.

Sam­my said he want­ed the strip of land from Debe to Pic­ton to be used for the es­tab­lish­ment of parks, food huts and recre­ation.

“We can de­vel­op that area so that the stu­dents who come to the uni­ver­si­ty can use it for kayak­ing and recre­ation,” he added. The strip of land was once used to cul­ti­vate sug­ar cane but af­ter Ca­roni-1975 Lim­it­ed closed down in 2003, land­grab­bers start­ed erect­ing struc­tures and bar­ri­cad­ing parcels us­ing gal­va­nize and oth­er ma­te­r­i­al.

Sam­my said the PDRC will be check­ing to see if the lat­est land oc­cu­pi­er had any right to be there.

MP for Oropouche East Dr Roodal Mooni­lal al­so said he has launched his own in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

“I in­tend to ver­i­fy what the folks are do­ing and if le­gal, de­mand that they post­pone work un­til af­ter the lock­down pe­ri­od. Res­i­den­tial home con­struc­tion is non-es­sen­tial and risks putting mem­bers of the pub­lic in great dan­ger. I warn land grab­bers that we will not hes­i­tate to alert the po­lice and of­fi­cers of the of­fice of Com­mis­sion­er of State lands. Apart from the il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty of land grab­bing they are in de­fi­ance of the or­der to stay home and that reck­less­ness is in­tol­er­a­ble and un­ac­cept­able,” Mooni­lal added.

Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Kaz­im Ho­sein said his mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers will be on the look­out for peo­ple who flout the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions which will last for 14 days. He said any­one who con­tra­venes the reg­u­la­tions will face the full brunt of the law.