Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal has denied that 20 squatters’ structures were bulldozed at Amelia’s Ward, Linden beginning on May 5th and he defended the move to clear the way for an access road stating that adequate notice had been given.
The government, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), has been accused of dismantling at least 20 structures at Amelia’s Ward to clear the way for the construction of an access road.
The issue was brought to light by a series of Facebook posts by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) and Members of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira and Devin Sears.
The area that the residents were illegally occupying has been earmarked for Phase Three of the Amelia’s Ward Housing Scheme and the government has already awarded contracts for the development of infrastructure in the area. The squatters were said to be occupying the front portion of the area where the main access road is slated to be constructed.
In a letter, dated May 05, 2022 [a national holiday], Secretary of the CH&PA Rajesh Ramgoolam ordered the squatters to cease and desist from all future construction.
The letter stated, “In pursuance of all of the powers vested in it under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act, Cap 20:01, Laws of Guyana, the Central Housing and Planning Authority hereby calls upon you to cease and desist from all unauthorised developmental works and remove all encumbrances including wooden structures on or before 12th May 2022.”
Ramgoolam also advised the squatters that failure to comply would result in the law being enforced.
Despite the contravention notice being issued on May 05, the CH&PA went ahead and began dismantling the structures on the same day. This move was in contravention of the notice issued by the Housing Authority.
According to Regional Chairman Deron Adams in excess of 20 dwellings were destroyed along with farms.
In a statement, the RDC questioned why the exercise was carried out so hurriedly noting that it commenced on a national holiday.
“The deadline given for these residents to comply is clearly stated as May 12th, 2022, which has not even arrived as yet, but still the area has been bulldozed. The Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 condemns in the strongest way this vile act and calls on the Ministry/Ministries to outline immediately what compensation and relocation arrangements will be put in place for the residents who are affected by this new development work and whole structures have been damaged by their operatives so far,” the statement read.
The RDC said that it “stands in complete solidarity” with the residents since there was a “clear breach of protocols” by the government. It also called for a clear determination of what will be done for the affected residents before any further work is contemplated.
Not moving
Regional Chairman Adams, during a telephone interview yesterday, told Stabroek News that the residents remain adamant that they are not moving from the area. He said that the RDC met with the residents in an effort to understand what led to the dismantling of their homes.
“No discussion was had with the folks and that is why everybody was in shock. In fact, what was alarming is that when they were doing this exercise, they even pushed the house down with a senior citizen inside and that is what I was told.
“This is most unfortunate. I was told is that they [CH&PA] have promised to come and have a meeting with the people and to provide further details to them on you know, whether it was going to be regularizing them, putting systems in place for them to you know to be given the lots or whatever. So when they came in, residents were caught completely off guard,” Adams said.
He added that many of the persons living there work in the mining industry and are in the interior for work. He related that contact has not yet been made with some of them.
The Regional Chairman said that the residents informed him that Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues met with them last year and she promised to craft a path forward in relation to the settlement.
“And apparently sometime last year, they are indicating to me that the minister … within the Ministry of Housing on water would have visited the area. And she had indicated that well, many people would have established informal settlements on their land there and that the ministry was going to outline a path forward for them”, he said.
Based on her Facebook postings, Rodrigues was in the area twice in July 2021 for the distribution of the government’s “Because We Care” cash grant and “Dream Realised” housing drive. She was also there in January 2021 as part of the government’s outreach programme. Efforts to contact her yesterday were unsuccessful.
“The residents are angry because the Minister [Rodrigues] said to them that they were going to be regularized and then once after a team from Central Housing [visited them] and now they have dismantled and pushed down their homes. The people are adamant and they said they are not going to be removed. They want to be compensated because they would have been advised [that they will be regularized],” Adams told Stabroek News.
He added that both the RDC and Mayor and Town Council of Linden were left in the dark as to the government’s intentions to remove the residents.
Hostility and political directives
When contacted yesterday, Croal defended the government’s move by saying that it had engaged the squatters and they agreed to move. He also accused some leaders in Region 10 of encouraging persons to squat.
Croal said that the government has a developmental plan for Region 10 in an effort to address its housing needs and the move to dismantle the illegal structure is to pave the way to address the infrastructure needs.
“Contracts have been signed and contractors are waiting to move in to develop the [housing] scheme and this is for the betterment of Region 10. We are building houses in Region 10 and we developing lots for allocation so the area in which the few have been dismantled is for the access road.
We need to have an access road in some way and what they have been doing, in an ad hoc way, is placing fences, placing infrastructure and walkways on that path. The whole thing is being encouraged by political operatives in Linden which is sad. It is my understanding that [the dismantled structures] is just for the access road and we have to start,” Croal said.
He said contrary to what is being claimed, the CH&PA dismantled only one house and several wooden fences and walkways that were in the way of the access road. He added that had the government allowed those structures to remain, then there would have been no alignment of the housing scheme’s infrastructure.
Croal also said that the residents were issued contravention notices prior to May 05.
“I cannot speak for the May 05 notices but I can tell you about what happened before. In the last two months, contravention notices were served on those persons…persons are hastening their squatting because they know we are developing the area and they are being encouraged to put fences and construct more in the area hoping that they would not be affected.
“Even last year when the team went to scope out the area you would have had a few fences in that area but not that infrastructure [that is there today],” he said.
Addressing a particular video making rounds on social media of an excavator dismantling an unfinished concrete structure, Croal said that the walls on the structure were recently put up. He said when the team issued its contravention notices just the foundation existed.
“Even after the fact this person got the contravention notice, this person was hostile. The CEO engaged them [the squatters] and they all agreed to move but this one person remained hostile. If they engage the CH&PA, the CH&PA will continue to engage them just like how we deal with squatting and all irregular areas,” he explained.
Croal further stated that the CH&PA employs a mechanism to deal with squatting and will engage the residents to have their issues addressed. He also called on the leaders in the area to desist from further politicizing the issue noting that the regularization of housing in Region 10 is for everyone’s benefit.
As of yesterday, some of the displaced squatters have taken up shelter with relatives while others are constructing in other areas. Stabroek News has been unable to directly speak with any of the affected squatters.
