“Eight years ago, there were no concrete structures, none! They were told at the time I went there, that’s over eight years or so, that the land belongs to the Government of Guyana, under Lands and Surveys. Therefore, I as National Director cannot make a call on this issue without first consulting Lands and Surveys. I told them not to put down any permanent structures until this consultation with Lands and Surveys was complete. I also encouraged them that the Ministry of Housing and Water were giving out lands and that they should apply,” Sahoye-Shury told Stabroek News during an interview yesterday.
She was at the time speaking on the issue of the Timehri North residents having to be relocated as a result of the extension work intended to be done at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
On Sunday last, during a meeting hosted by the Timehri North Community Development Council, its Chairman Daniel Fraser had said that Sahoye-Shury, during visits made to the area, encouraged residents to build on the land with the promise of regularizing the area. However, the CDC National Director said this was contrary to what happened.
“If this place was not surveyed, how can they get lot numbers?” she questioned, noting that the area was never regularized. She stated that as National Director, she visits all the areas and during her visit to Timehri North eight years ago, she saw no concrete structures and had advised the persons occupying the land that squatting is illegal.
According to Sahoye-Shury, she was at the time Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Housing and had encouraged the squatters to acquire house lots since the Ministry was distributing. “They don’t want to listen, they want to do their own thing. Now this is the predicament,” she said.
She stated that around the same time, people residing at Old Road, Timehri had that area regularized. “This is how I met with them (Timehri North Residents). They never came back to me but Old Road people came back to me and many of them are regularized, only a few not regularized but we are looking into the matter,” she informed.
She told this newspaper that CJIA will soon be the hub for traffic to Brazil and Venezuela and will develop the tourism sector. “The government ain’t just go and say that we’re gonna extend the airport. We had to get technical people who advised us that the only way to get more tourism is to expand because you can fly from here to Region Nine, cross the Takutu Bridge and go to Brazil. We ain’t want tourism? We ain’t want development? We want to be stagnated?” she questioned.
With regards to allegations made by the residents that the government intends to use the land for hotels rather than the airstrip itself, Sahoye-Shury stated that if it is the case that the airstrip does not stretch as far, it is a precaution for their own safety that they remove from the area.
“Let’s say for argument’s sake that even if the airport takes up 10,000 feet or so… you have in case something went wrong with the plane, all of them dead. So the government is making provision for eventuality. To get out of the airport in Toronto is over three miles… could we deal realistically with a tragedy or something going wrong like that? We don’t have the people. The hospital can’t take it off… we need a lot more public health doctors in Guyana and that’s just public health, preventive medicine, much less surgeons,” she opined.
Reserved land
According to Sahoye-Shury, there is an ongoing problem in Guyana of people occupying reserved land, further citing areas on the West Coast, Berbice and other parts of Region Five as examples. “If the Ministry of Local Government goes now and say ‘this cannot happen’ or (Ministry of) Housing go and say this cannot happen’, we bad,” she said.
Similarly, she said, the road on the West Coast is very narrow but there are reserves for the road to be extended. In addition to this, she continued, farming is a major factor and heavy-duty machinery has to be given adequate space alongside the road to traverse the area. “The people have to drive their machinery so we got to leave a space so these vehicles with mud on the wheels can drive. Now they complaining that the school children clothes and shoes getting dirty. I don’t know how to please the people,” Sahoye-Shury stated.
She also made reference to persons who had occupied land near the Ogle International Airport which too had to be extended and caused those people to be removed. “Look at Ogle… you had a lot of squatting there and the people agreed when we went and spoke to them that Ogle Airport had to be extended and we gave them house lots,” she said.
“I also asked the question ‘why you think government got open spaces’. If a country is to develop then you must have open spaces and the CDC they (Timehri North) have now, I know nothing about it,” Sahoye-Shury further stated.
