For the first time in T&T, some 388 squatters have been granted 199-year leases for their land.
The former squatters, who were already given certificates of comfort by the State, collected their leases from the Ministry of Land and Marine Resources at a function at Centre Pointe Mall, Chaguanas, on Thursday evening.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was listed as the feature speaker, did not make it to the event after she fell ill.
Land and Marine Resources Minister Jairam Seemungal said this was only the first stage, and assured thousands of other citizens who had been squatting on state lands that they would be given leases.
Addressing the new land owners, Seemungal said thousands had been squatting on state land for decades, not because they wanted to break the law but because they had no choice.
They lived in forested areas without paved roads, electricity or pipe-borne water.
Stories have been told of people walking along muddy tracks in tall boots, taking their children to school on their backs.
Seemungal responded to critics of his land distribution programme.
“They have been coming down on me and my ministry saying we are giving away all the land in the country.
“But I want them to say who is more deserving than needy citizens who lived all their lives in the most vulnerable situations.
“What should have been done 15 years ago started only in 2010,” he said, adding that some squatting communities has already been regularised and have their own schools, paved roads and electricity.
“The last administration stifled the Land Settlement Agency (LSA) for ten years so no squatter could receive entitlements to lands,” Seemungal said.
He recalled an intense period of demolition of squatters’ houses between 2006 and 2008.
“Before the cock crowed, they would come and break your house and put everything by the road.
“Instead of giving you security of tenure, they chose to put you out on the streets with your baby.”
Seemungal said in 2008, Persad-Bissessar went to court to represent 100 squatters whose houses were broken down.
The court ruled the LSA acted outside of its jurisdiction.
He said under the present administration 8,000 squatters were given certificates of comfort.
Of those, 7,000 investigations have been completed.
The 388 who were given leases can use them to get grants and loans to construct or reconstruct their houses, Seemungal said.