'Give me my land before I die': ex-Caroni worker's plea for VSEP promise

AT age 67, Baldath Bhooklal does not think he should still be building a house for his family but rather he should be spending his retirement in peace and comfort.

The former Caroni (1975) Ltd worker has been waiting for lands promised to him as part of his Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP), like many other former workers, after the company was closed down almost two decades ago.

“This is owed to me. I would like my land before I die. I know of people who died without seeing their lands. Tell me, you think this right?” he said.

On Thursday, Sunday Newsday visited Bhooklal, his wife Goomattee, 63, and son Pravesh, 32, at their Cumuto Road home in Barrackpore.

His house has been under construction for some years after he accepted the VSEP offer. He believes things could have gone more smoothly and with fewer financial headaches had the VSEP promises been kept.

Since the company’s closure in 2003, he said he has been waiting to get the residential lot and two-acre agricultural plots. It was only a couple of years ago Bhooklal said he got access to the residential plot.

The closure of the company was linked to a financial drain on the treasury.

The VSEP targeted about 7,866 daily-paid and 1,154 monthly-paid employees in which 15 residential sites and 14 agricultural sites were designated in Chin Chin, Felicity, Orange Field, Mc Bean, Esperanza, Roopsingh Road, Exchange, Calcutta, Sonny Ladoo, Brothers/Garth, Picton, Reform, Cedar Hill, La Fortune, and Woodland. The allocation was one lot of residential land and two acres for agricultural land.

At the age of 16, Bhooklal said he started to work at Caroni and stayed with the company until its closure.

“This land is our entitlement, yet we are being treated like beggars for what is rightfully ours.”

Bhooklal said it was difficult for him to even get the residential lot since communication between the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Caroni and the Estate Management and Business Development Company Ltd have broken down.

“Getting the residential land in Woodland was also a big problem. If I didn’t nag, make noise and harass them, I don’t I would have gotten the residential lot. Imagine that is what people have to do to get something right in this country.”

Bhooklal said he was still owed his agricultural plot, also located in Woodland, and believed that had it been distributed when agreed upon almost 20 years ago his family’s circumstances would have been better.

“When Caroni closed, I had to do odd jobs and was taken advantage of. I do not have an education; we are poor people. We are hard-working people, willing to do anything. Agriculture is a means of survival for my family up to this day.

“Imagine, if I was able to cultivate that land, my child would have been able to get a better education, and we would have been able to access better healthcare. If this land was given to me, I would have been in a better position,” he said.

Bhooklal said the failure to distribute land was not a fight from the ex-workers against the present government but was rather a call for them to distribute what was owed to them.

“This is not a PNM or UNC thing. Both parties had to opportunity to see about us but they chose not. I really think they all are using this as political leverage for their campaigns while people suffer.”

Another ex-worker, Thackoorlal Lutchman, 64, was given his agricultural plots but not the residential lot.

He said the absence of roads to the agricultural plot prevented him from accessing the land.

“There are no roads or even a track for me to go in the land. No water, no lights, nothing. How can we cultivate the land when what was promised to us has not been given?

“They (authorities) said we abandoned the land, so they took it back and gave it to other people. That is not true. The land still remains unoccupied up to today, so what nonsense they talking about.”

Both men said they tried to get assistance from the union, All Trinidad General Workers’ Trade Union (ATGWTU) for assistance in the matter, but none was forthcoming.

Bhooklal said, “If the union was interested, they would have stood up with us. They are just a waste of time. It’s 19 years this matter ongoing, and the union chose to say nothing, very rarely would some people say something but that is only when it benefits them.

“Nobody cares about the ex-Caroni workers; they don’t know what we are going through.”

Sunday Newsday reached out to union president Nirvan Maharaj for a response to the farmers’ complaints. He said the matter was not that simple and many legal obstacles held back the distribution and implementation of the VSEP.

“There are a lot of issues regarding the infrastructure of these agricultural and residential lots. So, there were Caroni workers who got letters of allocation, but they never got a lease in their hands making them the owners.

“I could only speak about from when I became union president which was 2012, we had small victories. At this point, I see it as more of a political issue and it is a matter of urgent importance that should be addressed in Parliament.”

Maharaj said there were about 1,198 people were yet to be allocated agricultural plots, some were dislocated and still to be reallocated lands for both agricultural and residential lots and some people, while they have leases, don’t know where the lands were located.

He said over 3,000 people were still awaiting residential lots.

“I wrote to the minister about a month and a half ago requesting a meeting to talk about Caroni lands and cane farming lands and tenants, but I am yet to receive a response from him on that.

“We can take it to court, and it will take another five to ten years to be heard. The situation is very messy. It really needs political will and agitation to get it resolved.”

Sunday Newsday reached out to Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat via WhatApp about the status of the land distribution and the reasons for the delay.

In a response on Saturday, Rambharat said, "The final survey plan for the site was submitted to the Director of Surveys recently for approval. Once approved, EMBD will be in a position to issue leases to the ex-Caroni workers. I have asked our PS (permanent secretary) to check with our acting Director of Surveys on the matter."

On February 14, ex-workers protested in front of Brechin Castle Estate in Couva and called on the government to distribute lands owed to them as part of their VSEP.

The protest took place near the Nutrimix Group of Companies Ltd’s Next Generation Hatchery at the corner of Rivulet and Captain Watson Roads, where the Prime Minister and Rambharat were attending the opening.

Both men did not address the issue or meet with the protesters.

In April last year, Rambharat said only 15 per cent of the agricultural plots distributed to former Caroni workers were being used and called for the ex-workers to cultivate it or it will be reclaimed by the State.

Rambharat said then, “I have asked the EMBD and the Commissioner of State Lands to take steps. One is a notice which has to be served on everybody to cultivate.

“For those who cannot do that, the land has to be retaken.

“I think when the land is retaken, it will be available for us (government) to advertise to the public.”

Rambharat has also publicly stated in the past that the Government was working to distribute lands offered in the VSEP.