Between 2012 to 2015, the former government spent $70 million on the Land for Landless Programme, and although 1,500 lots were fully developed at a cost of just under $47,000 per lot ($70.5m), only six lots have been distributed and signed off by the Commissioner of State Lands.
This was revealed to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament by the Chief Executive Officer of the Land Settlements Agency Hazar Hosein yesterday.
He told the Committee that the remaining 1,494 lots which have been fully developed with roads, water and electricity are currently on hold. In 2009, it cost the LSA $70,000 to develop a lot of land. That cost has sky-rocketed to between $100,000 and $300,000 today, Hosein said.
The Land for the Landless Programme which was borne out of a directive of the Cabinet chaired by then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has also been put on hold pending review.
Hosein said the lands were developed mainly in Central and South Trinidad for two reasons.
“One of the reasons was that land was available and the other is that it was done on a policy directive,” he said.
Asked why no similar development took place on the East-West corridor Hosein said “the only areas we have been able to identify State land was in Talparo and Wallerfield.”
The Committee also heard that the LSA currently has an outstanding debt of $10 million to local contractors but the Agency which is dependent on the State for funding could not say when the debt will be settled.
Almost all of the money used to develop squatter sites he said came from IDB funding.
In 2002, out of an Inter-American Development Bank loan of US$40 million the LSA got US$13 million and in 2011 out of an IDB loan for US$50 m the LSA got US$24m.
“That money is used to ensure that the squatting sites get roads, water, electricity, and sewerage facilities “we bring them to the same standard or a better standard than other state agencies,” Ossley Francis, chairman of the LSA said.
The LSA was set up in 1998 with a mandate to regularise squatters who were on State lands before 1998. But Francis said “we are faced with a huge and undaunting task from 1998 to 2017.”
He said the problem of squatting had “continued unabated,” and there was nothing the LSA could do to contain the problem.
“We in the LSA do not have powers to eject or to remove squatters from State lands”. As a result the committee heard that where the act had envisaged 251 squatter settlements, today there are in excess of 700 squatter sites and the squatting population has grown to over 55,000 people, but Hosein admitted that the figure could be higher.
He said a survey conducted in the period 2009-2012 put the figure at 35,000, “from 2012 to now we have over 1,000 new structures hence we got the 55,000.
He said another survey is earmarked closer to the end of this year, which he said should give a better picture of the squatting population.
He said squatters tend to go to land in forested areas, so there has been growing squatting communities in Toco, Sangre Grande and within recent times “there has been a huge influx in Point Fortin as well.”
Responding to a question from Committee member Rodger Samuel, Hosein admitted that “on a daily basis my officers face security risks going out to settlements.” He said patrol officers “have no weapons or batons.”
He said “we are challenged everyday by persons who attempt to grab more lands.” Samuel said he was inclined to call the LSA a “toothless bulldog, but you are not even a bulldog.”
Samuel wanted to know whether the agency gets support from other agencies to reduce the danger. Hosein said “what I can tell you is between 1999 to 2017 the LSA stuck to the task. We have not backed down from what we are required to do. The other agencies have their responsibility but I am not here to discuss that.”
