Distribution of land to ex-employees of Caroni (1975) Ltd will move from the Land Division of the Ministry of Agriculture to Caroni (1975) Ltd, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat announced on Saturday night.
The minister, who delivered the feature address on Saturday night at the annual dinner of the Institute of Surveyors of T&T at the Kam-Po Restaurant, Chaguanas, said shifting of the process to various ministries and departments had created unnecessary bureaucracy and costs. He said Caroni is the best entity to undertake the process in the shortest possible time. Rambharat also said that close to 5,000 housing lots are to be developed under the programme which may be put into the hands of the private sector.
He said 13,000 lots were initially earmarked for development with 8,000-plus going to Caroni VSEP beneficiaries. The cost to develop these lots had increased more than 700 per cent from $181,000 in 2003 to $743,000 in 2015.
Rambharat said taxpayers should not be made to bear the burden to develop the excess lots which may have to go to the private sector. He said the Caroni VSEP land distribution programme was overly ambitious in its scale and lacked a precedent. He said the process involved politicians with elections in mind and lacked professional input for long term land use planning.
The minister said that the decision to distribute two-acre parcels was purely political and had not been based on what was best for agriculture. He said two acres cannot bring about sensible and economical farming but was the right political decision at the time. He also said that the frequent policy changes that followed undermined the integrity of the project.
He said over the last five years the programme had been stripped down and covenants to cultivate food were weakened while the ability to sell the land was expanded. He said the agriculture programme became a real estate programme and of 4,000-plus leases distributed to ex-sugar workers, 1,400 have already been transferred.
Rambharat said workers initially had to purchase the residential lots at a cost of $30,000 and in 2013 government policy changed to give away the lands for free. He said by that time the development cost had escalated to $543,000. “It gets even worse,” he said, “having taken hold of the project we have decided to bring it to its necessary end because we have to get a target of 8,855 lots.”
The minister said moving on the current trajectory the development cost is now $743,000. Rambharat said land is a challenge that is becoming more critical and there is a competing interest among government ministries.
“My friend and colleague Marlene McDonald (Housing Minister) was hosted by the Contractors Associations two weeks ago and in that room they were all planning to use the land that I would like to have for agriculture, so there is intense competition among ministries and among Cabinet ministers for the same resource and the development and sustainability challenge, of course, requires that we strike the right balance and do the right thing.”
Rambharat said there is the need for accountability of all State lands. He announced plans for a pilot project to deal with farmers occupying lands with no tenure in Mayaro and Caroni. He said in both areas 50 per cent of farmers are squatters.