— Minister Croal says gov’t helping as best it can

SQUATTERS occupying GuySuCo lands on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) are refusing to move and are hoping for another meeting with the relevant government officials — despite several before — and a commitment of help from the authorities.

According to Jermaine Hector, the squatters occupying GuySuCo’s lands do not have much of a choice. Another squatter, Kishan Brijmohan, said he would appreciate if the authorities could meet with them again even as efforts are being made for them to exit GuySuCo’s lands today. A young mother expressed similar sentiments as Hector and Brijmohan.

Squatters have been occupying lands that belong to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) at Vryheid’s Lust, Success, and Chateau Margot for some months now. Last week, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) began streamlining the land applications of squatters occupying those lands unlawfully in an attempt to provide some redress.

Some 703 applicants have received some assistance and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CH&PA, Sherwyn Greaves, told the Guyana Chronicle that priority will be given to those persons who have applied for house lots for a number of years now. These applicants will be able to occupy lands in 22 areas on the East Coast, East Bank, and West Bank Demerara; Linden; Berbice and Essequibo, where land preparation has been approved in the 2020 Emergency Budget.

‘WE ARE TRYING’

While he does sympathise with the plight of the squatters, Minister of Housing and Water Colin Croal related that the CH&PA has a backlog of applications and the authority has to be fair in its distribution of house lots.

“They will have to follow the process,” he said, but also gave the assurance that, “I’ll work along with them and I’ll try to see how I can assist them as a priority with the land-allocation process.”

Minister Croal, however, said that the government is already trying to help the affected squatters as best as it could. He gave a reminder that he has already met with the group twice before and pleaded with them to desist from squatting in the area which belongs to GuySuCo.

“I met with them twice [and] my position cannot change,” he said, explaining that these lands cannot be occupied by the squatters. “If we allow the Success squatting to continue or to be successful, you have no idea of the domino effect it will have across the country.” The minister also opined that “land-grabbing” may become the new norm.

It was reported that thousands of cane varieties have been destroyed, resulting in a potential loss of billions of dollars in future cash flows for GuySuCo due to the occupation of lands. An unquantifiable amount of data and research was also lost, since the Success/ Chateau Margot squatting area was a research nursery for GuySuCo.

These squatters were given until Monday (today) to leave the area. Stakeholders including the Ministry of Housing and Water and the National Industrial & Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL) attempted to help the squatters move from the area.

Minister Croal related that after conversation with representatives of GuySuCo, it was agreed that the squatters would be allowed to exit through GuySuCo, since the bridge built by the squatters over the canal connecting the canefield to the Railway Embankment was destroyed. A truck was also provided to help the squatters transport their belongings. This was done over the weekend.

CHASED AWAY

Croal however bemoaned that the truck driver was chased away and that the GuySuCo bridge was destroyed. Thus, the squatters could not benefit from that assistance.

On Sunday, many of the squatters said that it was impossible for them to leave the area, even if they were willing to, because the bridge that they had constructed was destroyed last week. They claimed that they did not know about the arrangement to exit through GuySuCo.

To address this, Minister Croal said that he engaged representatives of NICIL on Sunday evening and they would reconstruct a “temporary bridge” at that same location and make the truck available once more on Monday, to assist persons to leave the area. This, he said, would be done by 10:00hrs on Monday.