Government has 14 days to pay outstanding monies owed to cane farmers or face the court. Close to a thousand farmers gathered outside the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), in St Clair, yesterday demanding immediate payment.
Chanting “we want we money now,” the farmers said their cost of living had also become very burdensome since they have very little on which to survive.
After delivering a pre-action protocol letter at the OPM, the group then marched to the Ministry of Planning and to the Ministry of Agriculture and then to the Office of The Attorney General where similar letters also were delivered.
The legal letters were on behalf of 2,322 members of the Cane Farmers’ Co-operative Society, the Direct Delivery Cane Farmers’ Society, the Cane Farmers’ Association of T&T and the T&T Islandwide Cane Farmers’ Association.
Attorney representing the group, Gerald Ramdeen, said most of the farmers were elderly people who were prepared to fight to the end to get their money.
“The cane farmers have now signalled their intention to the Prime Minister and to the Cabinet that they are now going to court to force the Government to honour their promise to the cane farmers in 2015,” Ramdeen said. He added that two final payments were still outstanding, one at the end of last year and the other this year.
Ramdeen said during his election campaign in Couva, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had promised he would not turn his back on the farmers but since assuming office he had done exactly that. He said in response to a question from the leader of the Opposition, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, which was raised in Parliament in January, Rowley had made it clear he had no intention to pay the farmers.
The PM, Ramdeen added, had said that was based on legal advice which he had received.
“The Prime Minister claimed he was following legal advice which was given to the former prime minister.
“That is very strange because when the first budget was delivered by the Finance Minister $103 million was allocated to pay the farmers. So where was the legal advice that he (Rowley) was speaking about?” Ramdeen asked.
Former planning minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, who was also present, said the monies came from the European Union and the first tranche was given in April 2015 which was paid to farmers in July of that year. However he said, the second, which was $75 million, was not paid until November of that year hence the payment was delayed.
“The final payment will come from the Treasury which will be $30 million. The total grant from the EU is $97 million of which $27 million has been paid,” Tewarie added.
More protests
Also protesting outside the OPM were foreign used car dealers who called on Government to rescind its changes to the foreign used car policy which saw a reduction in the permissible age of vehicles from six years to four years. The dealers also maintained they were not consulted before the changes were made.
In 2008 the age limit was reduced to five to four years which pushed prices out of the range of the lower and middle class consumers which resulted in over 200 foreign used companies closing up shop by 2010.
In 2011 the association lobbied the then government and the age limit was raised from four to six years, which saw popular cars like the Nissan Tiida that were set around $100,000 in 2008 reduced to $75,000.