Rambharat: Almost 5,000 land applicants can't be found

The Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries cannot find approximately 4,800 people who applied for agricultural and residential land leases.

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat said during a lease-letter distribution for 21 people at the ministry at Narsaloo Ramaya Marg Road and Soogrim Street, Endeavour, Chaguanas yesterday.

He said a similar situation occurred with ex-Caroni workers as some 1,300 people could not be found and hence cannot benefit from their VSEP packages including residential and agricultural land.He said the ministry was digitising the paper files when it made the discovery.

“We have able to turn many files, about 5,000, into an electronic form,” he said, then admitted, “But we have not been able to contact about 4,800 people who have either agricultural lands or residential lands. I encountered the same thing when I was trying to finish the Caroni VSEP plan: about 1,300 people just missing.

“So I actually got a list on the weekend, about – close to 4800 people across the country – who. because their mail address or their telephone number has changed – a lot of people have abandoned their landlines and (are) using cell phones now. So very soon, we will be placing advertisements asking for people to contact us.”