TriniRealty.com

Moruga farmers are protesting what they say is the State’s failure to give them legal tenure over land they have planted for years. About 50 people protested on Friday along a road leading to the La Savannah Foodcrop Project site.

The project is in the constituency of former PNM Member of Parliament Peter Taylor. The challenger for the seat in the May 24 election, Clifton De Coteau, met the group, and promised support to help them secure ownership of the land.

The Government’s plan to construct a new 720-megawatt power plant in Barataria is being strongly resisted by approximately 60 small farmers who fear being relocated. On March 19, Minister of Public Utilities Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, during a post Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, stated Cabinet had agreed to build the plant in Barataria by mid-2011, to replace the existing one at Wrightson Road. Abdul-Hamid said after careful consideration, the Government had allocated a 15-hectare parcel of state land in Barataria, south of the Beetham Highway and south west of the Barataria flyover for the plant. Close to 60 farmers have been cultivating on these lands.

With the nation’s schools closed for two weeks from tomorrow, the Emperor Valley Zoo in St Ann’s, will be open to visitors even though some animals will be missing and construction work continues around the compound.

The Zoo is being upgraded at a cost of some $56.8 million with phase one currently underway, having begun in May 2009, and which was scheduled for completion in February this year.