Former Caroni (1975) Limited workers can feel confident they will receive all the lands promised to them under the Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) which was offered before the entity was shut down by the previous government. The assurance comes from Trade, Industry, Investment and Communication Minister, Vasant Bharath, following a march by the former sugar workers in Couva on Saturday, where they called for settlement of their outstanding issues.
Bharath rejected claims that lands were being used for other land programmes. “Over 13,000 lots of land have been allocated to the Ministry of Land and Marine Resources, and included in that allocation are over 8,000 lots that are to be allocated specifically to former Caroni workers,” he said. “The Land for the Landless programme is being implemented using other lots, and not the ones already allocated for Caroni workers. Any claim of the lands for former Caroni workers being at risk is completely false.
“All former workers can feel confident that they will receive their lands which formed part of the Caroni VSEP package. It was a promise made by the Prime Minister and as with other commitments, it is a promise that will be kept.” He reminded that one of the first acts of the Government was to withdraw the appeal to the Privy Council of the Justice Lennox Deyalsingh ruling.
“This appeal was made by the previous administration and effectively stalled the process. It was when Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar instructed her attorney general to withdraw the appeal that we were able to move forward to the distribution process for the lands,” said Bharath. He said through the Ministry of Land and Marine Affairs, there are 12,387 available lots, on 30 sites, with 8,855 lots allocated to the ex-Caroni workers. The remaining 3,532 lots are being used for other land distribution programmes, he said.
“So there has been absolutely no attempt to alter or adjust the allocations that are being made to ex-Caroni workers. And all outstanding lots which are at various stages of the execution process will be delivered before the middle of 2015.”