Land for 11,871 ex-Caroni workers

MINISTER in the Ministry of Finance, Christine Sahadeo, yesterday announced that 11,871 former Caroni (1975) Limited workers will have something extra in their Christmas stockings this year — land for agricultural activity, or housing. Speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Sahadeo said the applications of 7,105 ex-Caroni employees for land for agriculture have been approved and they will receive letters indicating such “before the end of this year.” She said 17 locations have been identified for these persons and are in the process of being surveyed. “As they are being surveyed, they are being mapped out by name to the employees based on their location,” she added. Sahadeo reiterated that “the land must only be used for agricultural activities.”

Sahadeo indicated that in the letters these people will receive, they will be asked to state the type of agricultural activity and the location they would prefer. “The reason is that we have been able to identify those 17 locations completely, and also identify those various agricultural crop capacities,  we are hoping that we will be able to match the needs of the former employees to ensure that the assignments will be as optimum as possible,” she explained. With respect to residential lots, she said 4,766 former Caroni workers applied and they will soon receive letters indicating that their applications have been approved. Sahadeo added that these employees will receive an additional letter requesting them to provide financial institutions with certain information “for checks and balances.”

She reiterated that to qualify for the land, the former workers must show that they did not own either a house or land as of January, 2003. Noting that many had questioned the length of time taken by Government to address issues relating to the former Caroni workers, Sahadeo said: “As a responsible Government, it is important that before we assign lands for agricultural activity or housing, the land had to be put into various categories to ensure that we optimise the use of lands for the relevant use.” Sahadeo also disclosed that Cabinet has transferred various properties and infrastructure, formerly owned and maintained by Caroni, to the Local Government Ministry, State agencies and the respective regional corporations. She said this was done because of numerous complaints about the deterioration of the former State sugar company’s assets since its closure in 2003.