00:00A motion passed in the upper house is set to pave the way for the Housing Development Corporation to distribute approximately 100 townhouses located along Cora Royal Road.
00:11The HDC, Mr. President, is ready for the distribution process, but they cannot, as I said, process the deeds of lease because there is no root title. The HDC does not own the lands, notwithstanding that they have built upon the lands.
00:27And this is something that we have been identifying, Mr. President, in the ministry, where several state projects and government projects are in the stage of execution, close to completion and so on. And the state does not have that formalized title for the lands.
00:47The land forms part of assets acquired from CL Financial's 3,000-acre land bank as part of the Clico bailout.
00:5712.26 acres in Bonnet Gardens, Arruca.
01:011,013 acres in El Dorado Estate off Cora Road, El Dorado.
01:0611.94 acres off Cora Royal Road, El Dorado. That's what we're dealing with now.
01:114.5 acres in El Toco Estate, Toco.
01:16112.34 acres in Santa Rosa Industrial Estate, south of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in Arima.
01:228.73 acres in Tumpuna Road, south of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in Arima.
01:31And 146.93 acres in the Buku Estate in Tobago.
01:38Minister Saddam Hussein describes the land acquisition and distribution process as lengthy and complex,
01:45citing a Ministry of Food Production paper which outlined 39 separate stages involved.
01:51It's a completely transparent process, Mr. President, but it's a lengthy, cumbersome process.
01:59And in the paper, it outlined that.
02:02It outlined that there are duplications and so on.
02:06And the paper asks, and I am quoting, it says,
02:10why is there the need to go to Cabinet two or three times in some instances
02:13for each of the Sections 3, 4, and 5 notices?
02:17Why is Parliament consulted only at the end of the process?
02:20He says the matter continues to engage the Ministry of Land and Legal Affairs.
02:26The opposition, meanwhile, expressed concern about HDC's distribution process.
02:32Several individuals who met the initial criteria were interviewed.
02:38The 100 townhouses have already been allocated through letters of offer.
02:44Mr. President, these individuals with letters of offer would now have legitimate expectations
02:52that the offers will be honored.
02:56However, Mr. President, we on this side have been informed that these letters of offer have now been voided.
03:04Opposition Senator Vishnu Danpol also repeated claims first raised in the lower house
03:10that the initial offer prices for the homes have increased.
03:14We have also been informed that the initial offer prices for the 100 townhouses have been increased exponentially.
03:24This is a disturbing pattern which has been emerging.
03:28Despite those concerns, the opposition ultimately supported the motion.
03:32Mr. President, it is common knowledge that the CL Financial Bailout costs the taxpayers of this country $25 billion plus dollars.
03:43Mr. President, we support this motion.
03:49Since the transaction has helped to recover public funds lost and it collapsed,
03:55the taxpayers-funded bailout should benefit from asset recovery.
04:01Mr. President, I have absolutely no sympathy for the hierarchy of CL Financial.
04:07I have sympathy, all my sympathy will be for the taxpayers of Trump.
04:12All my Barnaby.
04:12Ataravi Sheetha Wari-Rubnarai, TV6 News.
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