Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
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Developer acquires disputed land at Non Pareil
– co-op society contemplates restraining order
Members of the People’s Democratic Project Co-operative Society are contemplating a move to the courts to restrain any further development on a disputed plot of land at Section D Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara.
The members were forced from the land in 1998 when then Housing Minister, Shaik Baksh, ordered its flooding to prevent them from constructing homes.
Infrastructure work is currently taking place on the disputed land.
Now a developer has commenced work on the land, much to the consternation of members of the co-operative society.
Ownership of the land had been engaging the courts with the parties—the co-operative society, the Estate of Philicia Baird and the Ministry of Housing. The co-operative members are claiming that they are unaware that a decision has been made by the court. They are claiming that if any at all was handed down, each party should have been duly informed.
In 1998, several persons under the guidance of the co-operative society descended on the land and commenced demarcations to allocate house lots.
However, the government stepped in claiming ownership and there was a standoff with residents, who had already commenced construction claiming discrimination.
The land was eventually flooded on the orders of the Housing Ministry, forcing the co-operative members to abandon their housing project, resulting in significant losses.
The matter was subsequently taken to court and the co-operative members say that they have been waiting with great optimism that the situation would be resolved in their favour.
“We had meetings with senior members of the administration and we were asked not to occupy the land in a willy-nilly manner, (that our occupation) must be organised. We negotiated with them and we kept our end of the bargain,” a senior member of the co-op society who did not wish to be identified told this newspaper yesterday.
The official said that he subsequently learnt that present Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, took a plan for the land to Cabinet and it was approved for a private developer to acquire the land.
He said that he also learnt that the court had made a decision on the disputed land but no one from the co-op society or its lawyer were informed.
“We put our things on the land and they destroyed it, so let them put and we will see. We want them to produce the court order just as how they produced documents in relation to the land they took from the GPSU. Even if there is a court order we will still challenge it,” the co-op official stated. A few months ago, a sign was erected on the land informing that real estate agent Tony Reid was the person to contact with respect to acquiring house lots there.
When contacted by this newspaper, Reid indicated that the land was in the possession of a US-based organisation headed by a Bishop Grannum.
He had also indicated that there was no immediate desire to sell individual plots but to have one developer.
But yesterday Reid indicated that any queries about lots on the land would have to be directed to the Ministry of Housing.
When this newspaper enquired from workers currently working on the land, all were tightlipped and declined to provide information about who is responsible for the current development.
Efforts to contact Housing Minister Irfaan Ali and other senior Housing Ministry officials yesterday were futile.
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