MoE officials visit the Cane View/Mocha community

Jan 07, 2023 News

…to assist students to return to school

Kaieteur News – Officers from the Ministry of Education visited the Cane View/Mocha community on Friday to engage parents and students with a view of ensuring that the children attend school.

The Ministry’s visit follows the demolition of several homes belonging to residents of the Mocha Arcadia squatting area, East Bank Demerara (EBD) on Thursday.

The team comprised of officers from the Ministry’s Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) Unit and the Welfare Unit of the Department of Education – Region Four. The team was led by Assistant Chief Education Officer (HFLE), Ms. Carol Benn.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Education, the team was able to engage 16 children from seven households and has committed to working to ensure that they continue “to receive an education, and where frequent absences were noted, that the parties collaborate to end that.”

The team will return to the community today to provide supplies so that all children could attend school on Monday.

Meanwhile, Kaieteur News reported that the demolition exercise on Thursday left two officers of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) injured, while three persons are currently in police custody.

Commander of Regional Divisional ‘4’ B, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Singh, related to this publication that a woman is among the three persons who were arrested for alleged assault.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Housing had moved to demolish several houses at the squatting area, which continued on Thursday. On Thursday, during the exercise, the demolition team was met with resistance by residents who attempted to block the men from breaking down their homes.

During the commotion, two police officers sustained injuries about their bodies and had to be taken to the Diamond Hospital for treatment.

The demolition of the houses comes after seven families had refused to vacate the government’s reserve, which is slated to be used to build a new four-lane road.

Kaieteur News had reported that the Government said that in keeping with its mandate to ease traffic congestion for thousands of commuters along the East Bank Demerara (EBD), Region Four corridor, it is constructing the Eccles to Great Diamond Highway. However, the illegally occupied lands at Cane View/Herstelling form an essential link to the project.

The Housing Ministry had stated that to date, more than twenty families have relocated to nearby residential areas and have rebuilt new homes through government compensation.

However, the seven individuals remain non-compliant and continue to stall this development plan. The Ministry had noted several notices were issued to the seven households to relocate, but all their effort has been met with harsh and irrational resistance.

The Ministry had stated before that should their offers be rejected by theses illegal squatters, it will have no other choice but to proceed with a demolition exercise.

Kaieteur News had reported that the seven families were offered full compensation for their properties, a free residential house lot and a grace period to facilitate the construction of their new home.

In November, making another offer, the Ministry had publically offered the families two bedroom houses each in Little Diamond Housing Scheme, which they refused to take.

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