Khara Per­sad

Squat­ters from across the coun­try came one step clos­er to peace of mind yes­ter­day.The Land Set­tle­ment Agency (LSA) dis­trib­uted 108 cer­tifi­cates of com­fort to squat­ter fam­i­lies from across the coun­try at City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um, San Fer­nan­do.Re­cip­i­ents yes­ter­day were from Cal­i­for­nia, Clax­ton Bay, Cou­va, Ca­roni, Debe, Gas­par­il­lo, Pe­nal, Williamsville, Princes Town and Point Fortin.

Min­is­ter of Hous­ing, Land and Ma­rine Af­fairs, Roodal Mooni­lal, said the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the cer­tifi­cates high­light­ed Gov­ern­ment's role of de­liv­er­ing goods and ser­vices.The cer­tifi­cate is the first step in a three-stage process to­ward squat­ters ac­quir­ing se­cu­ri­ty of tenure in the form of a deed of lease for the land they oc­cu­py. Cer­tifi­cate hold­ers are en­sured pro­tec­tion from evic­tion.LSA chair­man, Nisha Mathu­ra-Al­la­har, apol­o­gised for on­ly hav­ing two cer­e­monies so far for 2013.

"We in­tend for the next half of the year to have many more like this," she added.She said the agency want­ed to move on to the "deed-of-lease" stage, where squat­ters be­come own­ers of their prop­er­ty.Mathu­ra-Al­la­har told ben­e­fi­cia­ries be­cause of the cer­tifi­cate of com­fort they have been el­e­vat­ed for the first time in their lives from be­ing squat­ters to peo­ple who were now recog­nised by the State as hav­ing a right to oc­cu­py their par­cel of land.

"You could ap­pre­ci­ate how valu­able this cer­tifi­cate is," she said.Ce­les­tine Joe­field, 92, was de­light­ed to re­ceive her cer­tifi­cate, say­ing her four-gen­er­a­tion fam­i­ly resided in her Clax­ton Bay home. "You know how I feel. I so hap­py," she added.A Gas­par­il­lo cou­ple, who have lived in their home for al­most 30 years, said the wait was long but they were hap­py to fi­nal­ly have their cer­tifi­cate."I used to say I get­ting old and I not get­ting any­thing (the cer­tifi­cate) but I got it. I feel very good," Vash­matie Out­ar said.

Her hus­band, Winzie Out­ar, said they built their wood­en house bit-by-bit and re­mem­bered when there were no roads, wa­ter or elec­tric­i­ty in the area. He felt se­cure hav­ing the cer­tifi­cate in his hands."At least we won't get put out," he added.Mathu­ra-Al­la­har of­fered the as­sur­ance that re­cip­i­ents would soon have a deed in hand.

She en­cour­aged them, there­fore, to start sav­ing as they would even­tu­al­ly have to pay to ac­quire the deed of lease."Start a land pur­chase fund be­cause the land we are giv­ing you is not for free but I can promise you, it is af­ford­able," she added.This group now joins over 1,000 fam­i­lies who have re­ceived sim­i­lar cer­tifi­cates over the past three years.

LSA falls un­der the Min­istry of Hous­ing, Land and Ma­rine Af­fairs and is man­dat­ed to deal with squat­ter reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion and con­tain­ment. It is al­so re­spon­si­ble for the Land for the Land­less Pro­gramme.In­clud­ed in its di­rec­tive is trans­form­ing squat­ter sites in­to sus­tain­able com­mu­ni­ties.