Home News $1.4B enhancement project: THERE IS NO TURNING BACK – Edghill to persons...
…as Govt seeks to regularise illegal structures
Residents of the Georgetown ward of Albouystown who had built illegal structures on the Government reserve and were in the path of the Government’s $1.4 billion Enhancement Project along Independence Boulevard and Cemetery Road met with Public Works Minister Juan Edghill on Tuesday.
Those residents, whose names were previously recorded by the Ministry’s team on the ground, were invited to meet with the Minister, along with those who had applied for house lots the day after the Minister had met with them in the area.
“I counted how many apartments are there, including the man that got the boxing gym. I [already] counted them. We have to be careful and a little sensitive, [because] if we had allowed it, a few people wanted to take advantage of the situation, [and] it will not be allowed,” Minister Edghill has said, adding that his decisions are based on principle.
“This meeting is for the people who have not moved, and I would like to hear what are the reasons, what are the issues, and why you have not moved,” he told the residents. 
Many of the residents responded that they had nowhere to go; however, the Minister advised that once they were allocated land, based on what category they fell into income-wise, some assistance could be forthcoming.
“I am laying down some clear principles: the land that you are dwelling on belongs to the state. It is Government reserve, whether you are here 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. Consult with any lawyer in the country, or you can take a firm of lawyers, nobody can get prescriptive rights on Government reserve, you can get prescriptive rights from your family land,” the Minister made clear.
“I am not offering anybody no money, nothing as an inducement to move. Fair enough, the human factor is that people were living there because they did not have any land, nowhere to go. Now you apply for your place to move, and there are factors in moving; and when that time comes and you have to move, I am not offering anybody inducement to move. But if there is assistance that is required, whether it is the truck or workmen to move the material and be re-erected wherever, we will try to see what can be accommodated.”
Multiple applications have already been submitted to the Housing Ministry on behalf of the residents. Edghill has reiterated that the project will continue, and that there is no turning back.
“Nobody is stopping it. This is not about a group of people, this is about national development, and I made that very clear on the afternoon we launched the 1.8-kilometre project,” he has said.
Caption: Public Works Minister Juan Edghill meeting with Albouystown residents on Tuesday
