Housing Ministry gives final offer to Mocha squatters

Nov 27, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) through the Ministry of Housing and Water has offered five Mocha squatter families two bedroom houses each in Little Diamond Housing Scheme.

Squatters are occupying a section of the area where the construction of the new Eccles to Great Diamond Highway will run. (Photo: Sydel Thomas)

However, the squatters have refused to move from their current location at Cane View/ Herstelling (Mocha) where Government intends to build the new Eccles to Great Diamond Highway.

The final offer which was published in a full-page advertisement in Friday’s edition of this newspaper states that “should this offer be rejected by theses illegal squatters, the Ministry will have no other choice but to proceed with a demolition exercise.”

The advertisement notes that the “Government of Guyana and by extension the Ministry of Housing and Water stands ready to work with all Guyanese in their best interest. However, we will no longer stand by and allow a nation’s development to be held hostage by illegal activities of any sort.”

The Ministry noted in its advertisement that the five households were asked to relocate on more than one occasion.

Government said that in keeping with its mandate to ease traffic congestion for thousands of commuters along the East Bank Demerara (EBD), Region Four corridor, it is constructing the Eccles to Great Diamond Highway. However, the illegally occupied lands at Cane View/Herstelling form an essential link to the project.

To date more than twenty families have relocated to nearby residential areas and have rebuilt new homes through government compensation.

However, the five individuals remain non-compliant and continue to stall this development plan. As such, the Ministry stated that the five persons were given two weeks final notice from November 5^th to vacate. These notices, the Ministry explained have all been ignored.

“Every effort by the Ministry has been met with harsh, baseless and irrational resistance,” the advertisement stated.

Like the other squatters who relocated, the five families were offered full compensation for their properties, a free residential house lot and a grace period to facilitate the construction of their new home. These offers have been rejected on all points, the Ministry highlighted.

In June, the Ministry in a Press Release said that it has been engaging residents in that area since January 2021 and lands were identified at the Farm and Herstelling housing schemes in August for their relocation.

The cost of the relocation process is borne by the Government and the squatters are being compensated for their homes based on an evaluation of each property conducted by the Valuation Office, the Ministry had said.

In December 2021, Kaieteur News had reported that the Housing Ministry had signed a $13.3B contract with 13 contractors to build some 9.4km four-lane of concrete road from Eccles to Diamond. Works on the road started in January.