Don’t try to bully Govt for land

HOUSING MINISTER Dr Keith Rowley declared that Government will not be bullied into giving land and warned land-grabbers that they will be severely dealt with. Addressing yesterday’s sod-turning ceremony for the Maloney commercial site, Dr Rowley said: “We will not be bullied into providing easy life for those who choose not to sweat and not to stay on the job and not to cooperate with the rest of the community.

“We too in Trinidad and Tobago have our ragamuffins and we are encouraging them to change their attitudes because our mission is to improve the quality of life for all our citizens. So those people in or out of the Parliament who are encouraging people to break the law, encouraging them to grab the land for housing, encouraging them to do all kinds of things that are inimical to the whole interest, I want to put them on notice that the majority of people in TT, led by the Government, will stand up for what is right, what is lawful and in the end, we will prevail into building our country into a developed country by the year 2020.” He particularly warned young people against joining the criminal element in the belief that they could “bully the Government into giving them an easy life.”

“Nothing worth having can be had without effort,” Rowley declared. Noting the housing construction programme’s pivotal role in addressing the society’s ills, the Minister reiterated that “squatting does not form part of the policy of the Government of TT.” Adding that the lands available for housing in TT were very limited, Rowley stated: “The Government intends to guard very zealously those parcels of land which have been earmarked for housing, especially those parcels of land which have been earmarked for housing under the NHA programme.” He told his audience that “mommy and daddy and five children in a four by four does not a quality of life make,” and this would cause a wider social problem for the entire country. “While it would be a wrong perception to believe that the Government of TT is aiming to build a house for every body in TT, it is quite correct to accept that the Government intends to build thousands of houses to house a large majority of people in this country.”