Squatters want Baksh to meet them at Liliendaal
Stabroek News
January 9, 2003
Squatters, occupying a plot of land at Liliendaal earmarked for a convention centre say if the Minister of Housing Shaik Baksh wants a meeting he should pay them a visit.
Up to late yesterday afternoon some of estimated 900 persons were on high alert next to their shacks and tents, looking out for enforcement officers from the Housing Ministry who they fear would move in on them shortly. Many of them have already begun erecting small houses and putting down markers on the land.
But Baksh said on Tuesday that his ministry would take whatever measures necessary to remove them: “The land is identified for development, which includes the construction of an international conventional centre and an international hotel and has not been identified for housing development.”
But he had also extended an invitation for them to meet with him and other housing officials at his office to sort out the problem.
The squatters said yesterday that if the minister is interested in meeting with them he should visit them on site. “It is the duty of the government to reach out to the citizens and not for the people to meet the government,” one squatter declared.
Stabroek News visited Liliendaal yesterday and from as early as 8:30 am scores of people were seen clearing specific portions of the land which according to Baksh belongs to GUYSUCO. West of the CARICOM Secretariat’s new headquarters there are two wide fields. When asked what motivated them to move onto the land, a member of the group told Stabroek News that many of the squatters are single parents who have been living at their parents.
“We have to pay water rate, light bills and provide for our families, then if we gat to pay so much rent when the month end come, what will happen to us?”.
The group, which comprises mainly families, said that all that they needed was a place to build their homes.
“We don’t want more hotels in this country, let them give us de land,” one woman said. Asked if they had applied to the ministry previously for house lots, some of the squatters said that they had gotten the “runaround” from the ministry. No documentation was presented, however, to show that they had been in contact with the ministry.
While some of the squatters were prepared to form a delegation to meet with the minister others in the group were adamant that the meeting would not bear fruit. Baksh said as far as he is aware no one from his ministry had given persons the go ahead to build houses on the land and it was only on Tuesday that they recognised the development.
This newspaper understands, however, that the group has been on the land for some time now.
Among the squatters are persons from Sophia, Central Georgetown, the East Coast and the East and West Bank.
The Housing Ministry is urging the group to follow the correct procedures for land ownership, adding that it will try to deal expeditiously with their requests.
Since 1992, thousands of house lots have been handed out by the Housing Ministry to eligible persons.
