Squatters protest gov't price for house lots
By Oscar P. Clarke
Stabroek News
April 24, 2003
Residents of Block `Y' South Cummings Lodge are at odds with the government over the price for plots of land in the squatter settlement following letters asking them to pay one third of $123,000.
Over fifty placard-bearing residents stood outside the Brickdam offices of the Ministry of Housing and Water claiming that $123,000 was an unreasonable price for the land.
The ministry in a move to advance the regularisation of the area had sent letters to residents asking them to come in and pay one-third of the sum on April 19 and 26 which they have refused to do.
The action, staged mainly by women from the neigbourhood, was prompted by what they said was government's demand that they find $135,000 inclusive of legal fees for the plots.
This, they said, was after a promise had been given approximately three years ago to sell the lots to them for $58,000 plus the $12,000 legal fee.
Contacted later Minister of Housing and Water, Shaik Baksh denied that such a commitment had ever been given. He told Stabroek News that he had told them that the ministry needed to check with Guysuco on the land's status.
According to the minister, checks with Guysuco in 1999 resulted in the discovery that it had sold the land, some 129 acres, to a developer from whom it later had to re-purchase it. Squatters had taken over the plot of land even as an agreement of sale had been made between Guysuco and Kaituk Developers.
Baksh did however admit that he had told a delegation of squatters from the area in 1999 that government generally was selling land in other squatter settlements for $58,000 - a situation he pointed out was continuing even today.
However the price for the lots, he had told them, would have been subject to details on the status of the land from the sugar company under whose control it was and still is.
Chairman of the Community Development Committee (CDC) Zainool Mohamed was insistent that they had been told that they would get their plots for $58,000 plus the legal fees.
He highlighted the fact that squatters in other communities along the lower East Coast were only being required to pay the minimum figure for their plots.
Baksh told Stabroek News that the ministry was only acting as agent for the company who under the agreement had stipulated that a scheme with basic amenities be established on the land.
He said money would have to be paid over to Guysuco which in turn would issue titles for the land.
Questioned on the residents' claims of several adjustments in the price for the lots, Baksh said that this was due to the level of infrastructure that would be put into the scheme.
He said the final pricing was based on a valuation and other factors which had been determined by Guysuco in the agreement under which government had to develop and sell the land.
Seepaul said a proposal by residents to use self-help to develop the community had been denied by Baksh who instead said that government was going to get consultants to undertake various works for which they would be required to pay.
Residents say the community is still without proper water connections and light and other amenities for which they would be required to pay as was the case of the standpipes installed by the water company.
They already had to pay $13,000 for the standpipe at the head of each dam through the Basic Needs Trust Fund project.
During yesterday's protest, residents held placards with slogans including "Baksh want we pay for we own labour", "58 or nothing for the land, Do not suffer us" and "Does Cummings Lodge have a gold mine?"
