Agriculture Minister Urges State Lease Tenants: “Help us by following-up on your land matters”

Agriculture Minister Urges State Lease Tenants: “Help us by following-up on your land matters”

Persons with outstanding land matters have been asked to step forward and bring it to the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries. Such an invitation came from the Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Senator the Honourable Clarence Rambharat, as he addressed recipients during a series of Lease Letter Distribution exercises held on Tuesday 12th October, 2021, at his Ministry’s Head Office in Chaguanas.

The Minister said that while he was grateful for the patience exhibited by lease letter recipients and other State land tenants, he asked that persons “be a bit more conscientious” when “following up” on their respective matters.  He said that the situation no longer called for persons waiting for decades in silence, and he urged members of the public with long outstanding issues to come forward, even if it meant writing to him directly for assistance. Minister Rambharat also noted that the average waiting time for the execution of a State lease was now just about seven (7) months which was a major improvement from the ten (10) to fifteen (15) years it took prior to his assumption to office in 2015.

Amongst the lease letter recipients was Ms. Chandra Singh, who received a lease letter after forty-two (42) years. Ms. Singh expressed great delight and relief after receiving her letter from the Honourable Minister.

Of the twenty-five (25) lease letters distributed today, twenty-two (22) were for agricultural parcels, two (2) were for residential parcels and one (1) for an institutional parcel. These letters convey Cabinet’s approval to grant a State land lease for a specific period (and under specific covenants). They now enable recipients to engage both financial institutions and State entities to conduct legitimate business transactions on the aforementioned parcels.