Ariti Jankie South Bureau
Friday, December 18th 2009
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ALL THE WAY: A supporter makes a contribution to Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj's campaign for the UNC Leadership, as he delivers a speech at meeting on Wednesday night in Tarouba. -Photo: DAVE PERSAD
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Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj intends filing legal action on behalf of former Caroni Ltd workers, so the $30,000 fee they paid for building lots given as part of their Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) will be repaid.
Maharaj said the VSEP accepted by former Caroni workers gave priority access to two acres of agricultural lands and a residential lot.
’At no place in any of the documents was there any mention of sugar workers paying a price for the land,’ he said at a public meeting in Tarouba on Wednesday night.
Maharaj took credit for forcing Government to give agricultural and residential lands to the ex-workers.
His Trinidad and Tobago Civil Rights Association filed a lawsuit in 2007, complaining that Government seemed to have reneged on its promise to give the ex-workers priority access to the lands. In his judgment, Justice Lennox Deyalsingh ordered Government to deliver on its promise to distribute leases to the land by June 2008. On Wednesday night, Maharaj said Government was asking ex-workers to pay $30,000 or lose their right to the land.
’I am advising sugar workers to pay their monies without prejudice to their rights and I would file a public interest litigation on their behalf to get back the monies plus interest and also get a monetary compensation for the loss they have suffered,’ he said.
So far, only 545 leases have been distributed for two-acre agricultural plots that carry a rental fee of $400 annually. In addition, 1,500 Letters of Offer were handed out at the Caroni Land Distribution Office, Brechin Castle, Couva, in which ex-workers were asked to pay the sum of $20,000 to $30,000 within 90 days.
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