Former State Minister for Immigration, Branville McCartney says the government can do a lot more in its fight to rid the country of shanty towns.

On Tuesday, Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett said the government would now summons landlords who allow squatters to live on their land to appear before court.

However, during a news conference yesterday, the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader said he doesn’t think the government’s plan will go too far.

However, he applauded the government for the effort, but said they are going about it all wrong.

The DNA leader bashed the government, particularly Mr. Dorsett for pinpointing only the health risks that come along with shanty towns.

“I think he mentioned [Tuesday] that his ministry was responsible only for a small area,” he said.
“So what does that tell you? They cannot be serious. You cannot just deal with one area. You have to deal with the full problem and in a humane way.”

“When I was in office, we had 37 shanty towns alone, on an island of 21 [miles long by seven miles wide]. I couldn’t believe it. They had to take us up in a helicopter and we counted them. It was 37.”

According to Mr. McCartney, politics weighs too heavily on certain issues in the country.

This, he added, is a hindrance to development and getting the necessary things done, as he claims one of the landlords who received a summons is being represented by a Free National Movement (FNM) senator.

“We’ve seen since June that nothing has happened; nothing in terms of the shanty towns. Then we have the minister of immigration saying that the shanty town issue is more complex than we think,” he said.

“But there are elites in this country protecting those people in the shanty towns. We can only come to one conclusion as to who those elites are. They must have some connection to the governing party.”

He said he hopes that one day governments can put their political mindsets aside and begin taking action, instead of talking.