No title given for 9 acres of Krooman Reserve
The Krooman Lagoon Reserve was a hot topic at the House meeting and everybody had explaining to do. Former Minister of State for Natural Resources, Elvin Penner, commented on the issue since the project, proposed by businessman Jack Chawla of Xtra House, came to his desk. The Minister of Natural Resources said that he has not issued any title to the owner of Xtra house for the nine point three acres. And on Thursday, the Prime Minister said the lagoon was a minister’s reserve but the Leader of the Opposition and former Minister of Natural Resources, John Briceño said that the reason why environmental experts can’t explain the concept of a Minister’s reserve is because it simply does not exist.
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“There is no such thing as a minister’s reserve. There are two acts under which you can call a reserve, apart from the marine. We’re talking about the National Lands Act, Forest Lands Act, and National Parks Systems Act. Under those three acts you can declare a reserve and there’s a process that you have to follow. Krooman Lagoon, that was declared a land reserve under the National Lands Act and for that to happen, you had to make it public, you had to survey it and publicize it. To this day, this government has not publicized the de-reservation of that area. Before any land can be given out in that area, you need to de-reserve it.”
Gaspar Vega, Minister of Natural Resources
“During the discussion in the House, I have not issued any titles in Krooman’s Lagoon as of today and that’s the truth. There is not much I can say after that.”
Jose Sanchez
“But minister, the Chawla’s have spent about seventy thousand dollars they paid the Lands Department for it and they have filled over four thousand tons in the area. How can they not get at title?”
Gaspar Vega
“Well, that would have to be a decision taken by the Cabinet.”
Jose Sanchez
“Are you going to recommend an EIA be done for the area?”
Gaspar Vega
“It is already being done as we speak.”
Jose Sanchez
“But it’s being done after the filling. The minister for Collet is saying that since that area has already been filled, perhaps the residents of his area should have some title to it.”
Gaspar Vega
“That’s why I said that will have to be a decision taken by the Cabinet.”
Elvin Penner, Minister of Youth and Sports
“As the minister of state, all I could have done was meet with this gentleman who had his plans, listen to what his plans were and advise the minister on what I believe would be the right thing to do. What we did was we made sure that the environmental people and forest people and any other technical group from the ministry who would normally look at reserves and reasons for a reserve to be there, we included all of them to look at the project, look at the proposal and see if they would recommend it. In the end they recommended it and that is how the minister moved in getting this person the land. Certainly, it would have been good to do consultation with the area rep which I wasn’t aware hadn’t happened because I recommended that Mr. Charles do go to the area rep and ventilated with him and make sure that it suits his plan for future development as well and that didn’t happen. It’s most regrettable.”
