FijiFirst candidate Premila Kumar has refuted Awadh Narayan Sharma’s claims that no development work was done in Caubati settlement, saying that all was done in 2015 but there was never a scheme plan.
While speaking at a National Federation Party outreach, Sharma claimed that when the Government Minister then came to Mama’s Place in 2014, saw that there were about a thousand voters who have land issues and they said do not worry, the Government will come and subdivide the land.
Sharma said when the Government was formed, a groundbreaking ceremony was done at Mama’s Place in 2015 and Parveen Bala was there as well but they allegedly told those present on the day, that the land would be subdivided, however, nothing happened until the 2018 general elections.
He said the residents started running around at that time to find out what happened after the groundbreaking ceremony as they had not been given a lot.
Sharma said when they went to the Ministry of Housing, they found out that the scheme plan for Mama’s Place subdivision has not been developed but the groundbreaking was already done.
He said the Ministry had said it will be done in 2018 but the election came around and nothing happened.
Sharma said residents- tried to organise this again and in 2019, he said they called the Prime Minister to resolve the issue.
Sharma said Prime Minister arrived with the Minister for Local Government, Premila Kumar and both of them promised that in the 2020 budget, Mama’s Place will be subdivided.
However, nothing happened.
The resident said Kumar came to Caubati a few months ago and they asked for the scheme plan but they did not have it and they instead showed them the 2017 scheme plan where the date for approval was changed.
He said about three weeks ago, the Government announced the subdivision of Sakoca Settlement but he questions why they are doing this in Sakoca when they had promised the residents of Caubati.
He said they have brought tractors during elections and as soon as it is over, they take the tractors back and have only constructed 4 chains of the road but after that people still have to travel through the mud.
While responding to the claims during a press conference at the FijiFirst Headquarters, Kumar said she visited Mama’s Place with the Prime Minister on 7th October 2020 at the request of the residents of Mama’s Place, after the elections in 2018.
“Multi Works was awarded the tender by the Government Tender Board worth $1.4 million and the civil works commenced in April 2015 for Stage One but unfortunately the contractor started facing problems caused by a few residents and several times, the contractor was chased away from the site.”
“The contractor could not commence work because they were threatened by a few residents as they did not want to remove their houses which came in the way of services needed for the development as some of them had built their houses where the road was marked.”
“Several attempts were made to rectify them but a few residents were simply not cooperating so the contractor got frustrated and left the site in 2019.”
“The Ministry continued dialogue with the residents and some work was undertaken by the contractor but it came to a point when the contractor decided that it’s not possible for him to continue the work.”
“Sharma was also present during the meeting with the residents and he kept insisting that there was never any scheme plan approved for the site but they all know that without the scheme plan and without engineer’s drawings, tenders cannot be called and awarded.”
Kumar said while Stage One was under construction, the Ministry prepared the scheme plan for the rest of the areas, which was endorsed by the Department of Town and Country Planning in 2017 and the number of lots increased from 248 to 309 to accommodate all the residents who were there before the scheme plan was prepared and the houses were numbered.
She says she has been the Minister for Housing and Community Development since late 2018 and they cannot allow this person to spread misinformation and politicise this just because elections are next week.
“Sharma also claims 4 chains of the road were constructed and the tractor arrived before elections in 2018 but the construction work started in 2015 and the contractor pulled out in 2019 after several attempts were made by the Ministry for him to complete the work.”
“These dates have nothing to do with past elections and he was claiming that the tractor came just before the election and the tractor disappeared after the election but nothing like that ever happened.”
Kumar said she was at Mama’s Place recently and at that meeting, she promised the residents of this place that she will return and show them their approved scheme plan, which she did.
“I think Sharma cannot believe that FijiFirst is moving with the developments and achievements cannot be digested by those opposing the FijiFirst Government.”
“In the last budget, money was given to the Ministry of Housing and Community Development to develop 12 other informal settlements,” she added.
Kumar had shown the media present the Scheme Plan which was approved by Town and Country Planning and the signed contract between Multi Works and the Government.
