Resh­ma Ra­goonath

"The law is the law, and we will en­force the law," de­clared tough-talk­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day, as she main­tained that Gov­ern­ment would not stand idly by and let cit­i­zens break the law in Cashew Gar­dens. Per­sad-Bisses­sar, speak­ing with the me­dia af­ter tak­ing part in the an­nu­al Labour Day march in­to Fyz­abad from Av­o­cat Junc­tion yes­ter­day, said Fri­day's de­mo­li­tion of shacks at Cashew Gar­dens, Long­denville, was with­in the law. The Prime Min­is­ter, who made his­to­ry yes­ter­day when she par­tic­i­pat­ed in the march, said Cab­i­net took a "de­ci­sion to en­force the law, and the Cab­i­net agreed for the Pres­i­dent to ex­e­cute an in­stru­ment known as an Or­der, au­tho­ris­ing the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands to re-en­ter lands."

She said the Or­der was signed by Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, who is the "sym­bol­ic own­er of state lands on be­half of the peo­ple.

"It was nec­es­sary that an Or­der be done by the Pres­i­dent legal­ly. We have op­er­at­ed with­in the law, and that is what we have done. We will en­force the law." On Fri­day, heav­i­ly-armed po­lice and army per­son­nel swooped down on Cashew Gar­dens and be­gan break­ing down shacks that were con­struct­ed two weeks ago. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Gov­ern­ment knew there were "peo­ple who need land; we un­der­stand that. We have fam­i­lies who need a place to live. (How­ev­er) there is a process.

"You could ap­ply, and there are ar­eas that we could des­ig­nate as set­tle­ment ar­eas, un­der the same law that cre­at­ed the Land Set­tle­ment Agency." The Prime Min­is­ter said the land grab by peo­ple in Cashew Gar­dens had placed reg­u­lar law-abid­ing cit­i­zens at a dis­ad­van­tage. She said army and po­lice had re­turned to the area to keep watch and en­sure that no fur­ther struc­tures were built. When asked if she feared any back­lash, since there were claims that crim­i­nal el­e­ments were in­volved in the land grab, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said flat­ly: "When I took this job, I left my fear be­hind me. We will do what we have to do."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said sim­i­lar ac­tion would fol­low in Point Fortin, where res­i­dents had em­barked on land-grab­bing as well. She ad­vised cit­i­zens seek­ing land to ap­ply through the prop­er chan­nels and they will be as­sist­ed. The Prime Min­is­ter said the sit­u­a­tion at Cashew Gar­dens was paint­ed in such a man­ner that it was larg­er than it seemed. "In a pop­u­la­tion of 1.3 mil­lion, it was just about 100 peo­ple in­volved in this il­le­gal land grab."