Moonilal condemns heartless demolition of homes
The cruel destruction of 15 family homes at Pine Avenue, Valencia is another arbitrary and callous act of the uncaring Rowley regime.
Prime Minister Rowley and Housing Minister Randall Mitchell must tell the nation what legal processes were used in the heartless demolition of the homes, which left poor families, including innocent children, without shelter.
The Prime Minister and his Housing Minister must justify the high-handed and ruthless measure against hard-working families and must state whether opportunities were granted for regularising their status or securing alternative housing.
There must also be public disclosure on why the occupiers were not given appropriate notices of plans to bulldoze their houses.
The ruthless action typifies the Rowley Government, which, in 20 months, has only inflicted hardship and pain on a besieged nation.
The destruction of the homes is in sharp contrast to official measures of the People’s Partnership Administration, which regularised the status of thousands of squatters and introduced the subsidised Land for the Landless programme for low- and middle-income families.
The PP Government also undertook the successful Residential Lots Programme and had earmarked a Foundation for Life Programme, in which land and a home foundation would have been provided.
Further, the PP Administration undertook the most extensive public home construction programme in Trinidad and Tobago’s history and developed communities to support decent quality of life.
For its part, the Rowley regime displayed a vicious abuse of power and a cold absence of caring with the flattening of the homes of the hard-working Valencia families.