Farmer should be compensated, Braithwaite should apologise – CC report
The report which was laid in the House of Assembly (HOA), revealed that an 81 year-old farmer on October 29, 2010 filed a complaint with the CC to the effect that the fence on his plot at Paraquita Bay was damaged in the hurricane, and that the farm animals, which belonged to the Agriculture Department, entered into his cultivation and destroyed a large number of crops.
The farmer also claimed that the Department had failed to compensate him for the crops and had refused to repair his fence. Moreover, the animals were still roaming loose, inhibiting him from using a poisonous chemical to clear the weeds on his lot.
The damage is estimated to be $2,810.
And though the fence was fixed, the communication with the Chief Agricultural Officer (CAO) Bevin Brathwaite and the Ministry was not forthcoming, the report stated.
“In my view, Mr. S [the farmer] demands and actions throughout have been reasonable. Once the matter was brought to his attention the CAO should have moved more speedily to restore the fence and mitigate further loss. He ought also to have arranged communication with Mr. S to advise him of where things stood.”
In light of this, the CC has recommended that the Ministry should compensate for the amount the farmer loss without delay; that Mr. Brathwaite should in a written apology explain the delay and that the Ministry carry out a thorough review of the Farmers Resettlement Project.
The report further stated that Government’s response is, on the whole, quite unsatisfactory, after the passage of more than reasonable time.
“There is little evidence that the Ministry is learning from what is uncovered in these investigations,” the report added.
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