Make a stance on the squatter situation

THE EDITOR: Squatters are makng a mockery of hardworking people who slave 20 to 30 years to acquire property and pay mortgages.  They boldfacedly sieze pieces of State or private land  then set up a community of  squalid  shacks, soon enough they are on television screaming for lights, roads and water. Most of the time they are successful, TTEC runs lines, WASA runs water pipes and the hodgepodge of footpaths they carved in the bushes are paved at taxpayers’ expense. 

This nonsense must stop! The state is on a massive house building exercise. Somehow this must be tied in with these irresponsible people. Government must offer some of these houses to the squatters in exchange for their settlements which must be torn down. They must be made to pay for these properties even if it takes 99 years. Stop the freeness Dr Rowley, hard working people are fed up looking on as others get prized lands for less than a song. Efforts must also be made to ensure that those who are the recipients of this country’s resources are indeed bona-fide citizens. In so doing the state must immediately embark on a new identification system promised by Minister Camille Robinson-Regis. It seems that Guyanese and folks from the other islands form a large part of these  squatter communities; it is alleged that quite a few of them even have Trinidad and Tobago ID cards facilitated during the reign of the UNC for voting purposes.

Dr Rowley I will be very disappointed if you and your housing ministry yield to the latest band of protestors outside  Whitehall, the squatters from the east who want lights, water, roads and most of all free land. Stop this nonsense now, let them pay for these things like the rest of us. It is time you and your government make a definite statement on ths situation Dr  Rowley.

MC DONALD JAMES
Couva