Shas­tri Boodan

Farm­ers oc­cu­py­ing state land in Fe­lic­i­ty, Ch­agua­nas, are de­mand­ing com­pen­sa­tion af­ter a state agency cut down their crops.

Fe­lic­i­ty Food­crop Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent De­bideen Man­ick yes­ter­day said clear­ing be­gan on hun­dreds of acres of State land on Mon­day and con­tin­ued in­to yes­ter­day.

“We un­der­stand that the LSA (Land Set­tle­ment Agency) has start­ed brush cut­ting the lands of the farm­ers who have been oc­cu­py­ing this thing for the last 10-15 years,” Man­ick said.

He said the ac­tion was done with­out any con­sul­ta­tion.

“They are seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion from the min­istry. They want an­swers.”

Man­ick said he was un­cer­tain if the farm­ers had writ­ten per­mis­sion from the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands to oc­cu­py the acreage or had pre­vi­ous­ly ap­plied for per­mis­sion. How­ev­er, he claimed the state moved with­out warn­ing and the farm­ers had lit­tle time to get their hands on their doc­u­ments or har­vest crops.

Ren Quamina shows a damaged hose.

He said many were in pos­ses­sion of farm­ers’ badges is­sued by the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture. He said badges may be is­sued to farm­ers prac­tis­ing for more than five years on oc­cu­pied lands.

Man­ick said an of­fi­cial from the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture ad­vised the farm­ers to “go through the process to get re­dress.”

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed yes­ter­day said he plans to write the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties on the mat­ter.

“This is a heart­less act that was done with­out any con­sul­ta­tion. What is the rush?” Mo­hammed said.

He not­ed that the lands were un­der the hold­ing of the EM­BD to be dis­trib­uted to for­mer Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed work­ers as two-acre agri­cul­ture plots. Mo­hammed said he was al­so un­aware of any plans by the state for any projects in that area.

One of the farm­ers, In­shan Sal­im, claimed he has heard that the lands will be giv­en to ex-work­ers of Petrotrin.

When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat said he was not aware that the area was be­ing cleared, nor was he aware that the land would be dis­trib­uted to ex-Petrotrin work­ers.

“Any­one le­git­i­mate­ly hold­ing State land can vis­it the State Land of­fice in Chase Vil­lage,” Ramb­harat said.