Even though a previous People’s National M administration failed to fulfill Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) obligations to former Caroni Ltd workers, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat is committing himself to ensuring they are rapidly achieved.
The announcement was made by Caroni Ltd chairman, Jerry Hospedales, in his address at a ceremony at the Couva/Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce yesterday in which 452 leases were distributed to former sugar workers for agricultural and residential lots promised them in their VSEP.
Rambharat, delivering the feature address to the group in the chamber’s hall, said he made history when he became the first former Caroni worker to be appointed a Government minister after the September 7 general election.
Rambharat held the posts of corporate secretary and CEO of Caroni Ltd during the VSEP years and was instrumental in drafting the package. He said he also was given agricultural and residential lots after the closure of Caroni Ltd but has been waiting since 2005 “for it to happen.”
He said there were many difficulties in the distribution of leases, the last of the VSEP commitments not yet honoured, which started with the PNM and continued with the former People’s Partnership administration.
Former Land and Marine Affairs minister, Jairum Seemungal, who gave out thousands of leases to former Caroni Ltd workers during the last administration’s term in office was severely criticised by the PNM opposition at the time for “giving away all the State’s land”.
Rambharat said he had no intention of denying former Caroni Ltd workers what they were entitled to. He said his Government was committed to ensuring it delivered to the former sugar workers what was required under their VSEP and by the court’s order.
The former PNM administration was taken to court by the workers for refusing to fulfil the VSEP obligations and lost the case. Justice Deyalsingh ordered they be given what was due to them. The PNM appealed the ruling but it was withdrawn by the PP when it came into power. The PP began the lease distribution exercise after this.
Rambharat said the exercise was shifted to the Commissioner of State Lands under the PP, whose office is in El Socorro.
However, one of the first policy decisions he made when he became Agriculture Minister was to shift the process back to Couva, he said. The Couva office will be fully functional by next month. Further, his ministry is working on creating a special unit to encourage all the recipients of agricultural plots to get into farming.
Rambharat said many who got leases already sold their land and others were waiting to sell. He said when the VSEP was conceived, the idea was to give the former workers land to keep as a family legacy and to cultivate as a form of income. He appealed to the recipients at the function to hold on to their leases. He told them he was accessible to them, friendly and there to help.
PNM ministers have been criticised for being inaccessible. Yesterday, former PP minister, Vasant Bharath, said a gag order had been placed on them. He was referring to their silence on many pertinent issues affecting the nation.