Guyana/Trinidad Land deal…MOU should be halted for wider consultation – APNU

Nov 24, 2013 News

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-Lands in Region Six earmarked for project
By Kiana Wilburg
A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Shadow Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, believes that all plans to move ahead with the recently signed Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago should be halted because it is shrouded in too much secrecy.

The MOU, which is a Jagdeo based initiative is geared towards making some of Guyana’s lands available to the Twin Island to invest in Agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture recently informed that the exact amount of land which will be granted to the Caricom member state has not been agreed upon though it has been reported that some 10,000 acres of land was already earmarked for the project.
At a press briefing on Thursday last, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy as well as the Food Production Minister of the neighbouring island, Devant Maharaj, said that based on the findings of the technical team, they will be moving forward with the project.
However, the detailed findings of the technical team were not disclosed by either Minister.
Meanwhile, lands in Region Six, in particular, the Canjie Basin and the intermediate savannahs, were earmarked for the possible Trinidadian investors to use for agricultural purposes.
However, Dr. Ramsammy revealed to this publication that while these potential areas have been identified, the amount of land that will be used is still undetermined until specific investment proposals are made.
Be that as it may, Dr. Roopnarine has asserted that while he is not informed about the details of the MOU, he insists that all plans to move forward with this aspect of the project should be brought to a standstill immediately.
Although reports have been made that Guyana stands to gain substantial benefits from this project, the APNU politician stressed that the “details” of these so-called benefits have not been made public.
“How does this project benefit the people of Guyana? Why the findings of the technical team weren’t made public information and how does this fit into our plan for the Agricultural development of Guyana? We need to know these details for such a project, and until then I believe that it should be shelved and the MOU be made a subject of wider consultations.”
The Member of Parliament also said that the details of the MOU should also be made public as well.
He said, “Land is a very sensitive issue and when it comes to issuing lands to non Guyanese for the best of reasons, all details must be revealed.”

At the press briefing, Dr. Ramsammy had also indicated that they are still in the initial stages of this collaboration, but have made some amount of headway as they have already identified crops such as corn and soya to be propagated.
Discussions with regard to the land deal are still ongoing.
Maharaj has also stressed that the project is being done with the intention of creating sustainable employment and to diversify the T&T economy from being heavily dependent on energy and moving towards developing a second frontier.
He also expressed that the project comes at a critical time since they are currently turning away investors due to the unavailability of land needed for such a venture to successfully materialize.
When Maharaj was asked about the reports of Trinidadians who expressed concerns over the project, referring to it as irrelevant, since they claimed that their island already has fertile land, the Food Production Minister said, “We may have the acreage but it is broken up and spread across the entire island.”
He said that to date he has received no objection towards the signed MOU since it was announced earlier this year.
Maharaj is of the belief that these “alleged complaints” are spread by political agents who are simply seeking political mileage.”
He said, “The Housing Ministry is mandated to provide subsidized housing for persons in TT. To date, we have close to 200,000 applications for housing and they only produced about 9000 houses in the last three years. Before that, they produced about 2000 houses so this gives an idea about the intense competition we have for land between housing and agriculture.”
“There are lands in TT but persons are either uneducated or uninformed when they make statements about TT having land for this project. They think lands are just sitting there and not being used but the lands which they refer to, are privately held lands where persons have received a lease from the state and as such, they have legal entitlement to those lands and it would be illegal and immoral for the state to arbitrarily and capriciously take those lands from those individuals without due process.”
Minister Maharaj then said, “With regard to this project, both governments are simply acting as facilitators. We are simply helping our investors to have access to land which TT does not have to offer.”

 

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