Following the angry claims made by farmers in Wesley that the government destroyed their farmland for the construction of the proposed international airport, the government has clarified that the farmers were given adequate notice to relocate before construction began for the airport.
A particularly disgruntled plantation farmer, Einstein Drigo, complained on Q95 Radio that the government deployed a bulldozer to destroy his farmland which contained almost 2,000 plantains before he returned from church on Sunday. He said some of the destroyed plantains were ripe for harvesting and that the government has not contacted him yet to discuss compensation plans.
“They didn’t even give me a chance to make someone value there for me and they didn’t even tell me they were going to do that,” Drigo lamented. “I had about 2000 bunches of plantains there.”
Parliamentary representative for Wesley Constituency, Fidel Grant, debunked the claims made by Drigo and other disgruntled Wesley farmers. Grant said the government in January 2020 consulted with Wesley residents over the proposed airport and it was agreed that farmers whose farmlands would be impacted by the construction should be relocated to the Joe Burton and Mambrey area of the constituency.
“In the first quarter of 2020 notice was served to vacate the lands in preparation for the construction of homes,” Grant stated. “This would allow for adequate time to harvest crops already cultivated and to relocate to an alternate location.”
He also disclosed that the government is still waiting to discuss with farmers who are interested in regularizing their relocation arrangement with a view to establishing new farm holdings in select areas of the constituency. He noted that farmers in Joe Burton have agreed to the government’s plans and are only waiting to have farming plots allocated to them. He urged Dominicans to cooperate with the government in its drive to construct the proposed airport and boost food security in the country.
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