Granger gov’t displacing farmers for political reasons – Rohee charges
Wednesday , October 14 2015, Source
DEPRIVING Guyanese farmers of their legitimate rights to do the work they love and earn a living, actions advanced by the David Granger-led Administration, was condemned by the political Opposition, the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) yesterday. General Secretary of the PPP at a news conference held at Freedom House contends that the actions will provide disastrous and represents another blow to the agricultural sector in Guyana.
At least three farmers have taken the Mahaica/Mahaicony Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) to the High Court for cancelling, with immediate effect, the lease they held for state lands, which they developed for agricultural purposes. Rupert Blackman, Rawle Miller and Phillip Johnson are being represented by former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, who is seeking, on their behalf several orders from the court. The orders include that the decision to cancel the leases be quashed, that the MMA/ADA is prohibited from preventing the farmers from accessing their lands which have already been cultivated and show cause to justify their actions.
Rohee said, “The government’s policy appears to be one aimed at displacing legitimate farmers who produce and to discriminate in favour of the politically connected who own hundreds of acres, but prefer to rent and to produce.”
As such he made clear that the PPP is of the view that “land has become a tool for dispensing political patronage” to persons closely associated with the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government and who helped “bankroll the Coalition” to gain office.
“Guyanese should not remain silent on this travesty executed by a creeping authoritarian regime. The destruction of the rice industry has started once again as was the case in the 1970’s to 1980s,” the PPP General Secretary said.
According to him, Guyanese are left to wonder whether the country’s Minister of Agriculture took the opportunity to raise the problems affecting the rice and sugar industries with his Caricom colleagues recently in Georgetown when they met at the Council for Trade and Economic Cooperation (COTED) and whether he sought their collective cooperation and efforts in the search for solutions such as access to Regional and extra-regional markets for Guyana’s rice.
“The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) denounces the arbitrary and politically motivated action by the Granger-led APNU+AFC Coalition to repossess farm lands leased to farmers at Region Five,” Rohee stressed.
Some 30 acres of land at Plantation Seafield, West Coast Berbice, are the subject of the dispute. The next hearing in the matter is expected sometime later this month.
