The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) yesterday detained two persons in the Farm community, East Bank Demerara for illegally digging up government reserves, GINA said.
Minister within the Ministry of Communities Keith Scott along with a team from the CH&PA swooped on the area after receiving reports of the activity.
“When we came out here, there were five trucks on the ground, three of them drove away but we got two trucks and a bob-cat, so we are now taking them to the station right now,” Enforcement and Investigation Officer, CH&PA, Lestor Kit told GINA. The vehicles apprehended are GPP 4091 and GJJ 4002.
He stated that for the past two weeks, the CH&PA has been receiving information about persons removing the dirt from all of the reserves in the Farm/Providence and Covent Garden areas.
“They been using bob-cats and trucks and grading up that mud and selling it for $15,000 to $20,000,” Kit stated. He said that since receiving the report the CH&PA has been looking for these persons but was unable to apprehend them because they tended to mostly work in the night and on the weekends when the unit is not as active.
Kit, according to GINA, noted that these persons have been excavating the reserves in some areas to a depth of five feet. He voiced concern that this could lead to flooding in these areas if it were to rain.
