JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Mayaro MP: Evictions lacked humanity

by

34 days ago
20250210

Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray has crit­i­cised the gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the evic­tion of squat­ters in Ram­jat­tan Trace, say­ing it lacked ma­tu­ri­ty and hu­man­i­ty.

He said the State’s ac­tions high­light the need for a clear hous­ing strat­e­gy while call­ing for the im­me­di­ate halt of all evic­tions.

“The gov­ern­ment must put an im­me­di­ate stop to any ad­di­tion­al evic­tions at Ram­jat­tan Trace, “ Paray said in a re­lease. “Forc­ing fam­i­lies in­to home­less­ness with­out al­ter­na­tive hous­ing is in­hu­mane and reck­less.”

He al­so de­mand­ed that the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands and the Land Set­tle­ment Agency clar­i­fy the le­gal sta­tus of the lands and jus­ti­fy the evic­tion no­tices, de­scrib­ing the cur­rent un­cer­tain­ty as un­ac­cept­able.

“The gov­ern­ment must hold ur­gent con­sul­ta­tions with the res­i­dents of Ram­jat­tan Trace to find a fair and trans­par­ent so­lu­tion. Ig­nor­ing their con­cerns and bull­doz­ing homes have on­ly es­ca­lat­ed ten­sions and deep­ened pub­lic mis­trust,” he said.

As a long-term so­lu­tion, Paray pro­posed planned re­set­tle­ments with prop­er hous­ing and ac­cess to wa­ter, elec­tric­i­ty, health­care, and ed­u­ca­tion. He sug­gest­ed grant­i­ng cer­tifi­cates of com­fort and even­tu­al land ti­tles to those liv­ing on the land for more than a decade.

Paray al­so pushed for eco­nom­ic sup­port through job pro­grammes, mi­cro-en­ter­prise zones, and part­ner­ships with in­dus­tries in re­set­tle­ment ar­eas. He warned that evic­tions with­out eco­nom­ic al­ter­na­tives would on­ly deep­en pover­ty.

“With over 60,000 fam­i­lies liv­ing in un­reg­u­lat­ed set­tle­ments na­tion­wide, squat­ting is not a new is­sue. How­ev­er, this ad­min­is­tra­tion’s fail­ure to de­vel­op a struc­tured and hu­mane re­sponse has now turned it in­to a full-blown hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis,” he said.

He urged the gov­ern­ment to treat squat­ting as a hous­ing is­sue rather than a prob­lem to be crushed. Proac­tive poli­cies, tech­no­log­i­cal mon­i­tor­ing, and com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, he said, were es­sen­tial to pre­vent­ing fu­ture il­le­gal set­tle­ments.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Kei­th Row­ley and his gov­ern­ment have tak­en a firm stance against squat­ters say­ing they can­not oc­cu­py the land il­le­gal­ly and then try to hold on to it when asked to leave.

Speak­ing on Fri­day at the of­fi­cial rib­bon cut­ting for the City Heights Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment he said: “You can­not run a coun­try like that.”

“There are lots of peo­ple who are liv­ing in the coun­try, and there are pro­grams in the state to sup­port squat­ter reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion. There are pro­grams to as­sist peo­ple. But when we try to or­gan­ise the re­moval of per­sons who are oc­cu­py­ing state lands il­le­gal­ly, then it be­comes a com­plex is­sue, and it is not just about be­ing hu­mane,” Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley main­tained.

Row­ley, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and MP for La Hor­quet­ta/ Tal­paro Fos­ter Cum­mings have all tak­en a strong stand against the squat­ters.

“We make sure that peo­ple do not con­tin­ue to squat on state land,” Robin­son Reg­is said.

Robin­son-Reg­is al­so high­light­ed the en­vi­ron­men­tal and in­fra­struc­tur­al chal­lenges caused by squat­ting.

“They have been oc­cu­py­ing the first re­serves, quar­ry­ing, and cre­at­ing a sit­u­a­tion that is un­ten­able,” she said.

Cum­mings said it was painful for him to wit­ness the evic­tion of res­i­dents. How­ev­er, he main­tains that the law ap­plies to every­one and ad­vis­es af­fect­ed res­i­dents to ac­quire homes through the prop­er chan­nels.

“I would ad­vise them, and I would even give what­ev­er sup­port I can to rec­om­mend that those who qual­i­fy can be con­sid­ered for that type of in­ter­ven­tion. But it can­not be that we op­er­ate in a law­less man­ner,” he said.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored