Rambharat: Most Caroni VSEP land given out

Almost 17 years since Caroni Ltd was shut down, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat said the ministry has “substantially completed” the distribution of two-acre plots of agricultural land to the former workers.

Caroni (1975) Ltd was closed down by the government on August 1, 2003 and the plots were part of the Voluntary Separation Enhancement Packages (VSEP).Speaking to reporters after distributing lease letters to 28 recipients at the ministry’s Chaguanas headquarters on Tuesday, Rambharat said some 7,260 former workers were eligible for the two-acre plots.

“I believe we have substantially completed that exercise,’ he said, though he noted that the ministry could not find 1,130 people.

“We are continually advertising, and some came in and we keep an ongoing exercise to try to locate those people.”He said the leases for some religious organisations had also expired and this had to be rectified, as several had never received their leases. One was the Maha Sabha.

Rambharat said when he was at Caroni Ltd, they had completed some 69 out of approximately 80 files.