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Lamaha Gardens land was sold behind owner’s back – GPSU says
The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has accused the government of going behind its back and “illegally” selling the controversial plot of land at Lot 142 Durbana Square, Lamaha Gardens.
The controversial land at Lamaha Gardens.
In its first statement on the land matter, the union emphasized that despite its intervention prior to the sale of the property; the land was liquidated and sold. GPSU has also charged that the land like the rest of the properties in the area, is GPSU-owned.
The union is thus demanding that the transport granted to the businessman who bought the property be recalled, that the investigation which was ordered by President Donald Ramotar, have a GPSU nominee involved and that the investigation report be made public.
GPSU said that it wished “to express shock and dismay and utter condemnation at the illegal sale of property situated at 142 Lamaha Gardens Georgetown.”
The union related that “the land which was for many years being used by the residents of the Lamaha Gardens area as a playfield is owned by the GPSU Housing Co-operative, being the successor organization of the Civil Service Association Housing Co-Operative Society.”
The Union President, Patrick Yarde, said in the statement that the land for sale was first advertised in the Chronicle Newspaper on November 16, 2012.
Upon noticing the advertisement which read that “Tenders are invited for sale of land, Lot 142 Civil Service Association Co- operative Housing Society Ltd,” with the land’s liquidator’s information available, the union immediately wrote to the liquidator Cecil Ramnarine, through its attorney, MP Joseph Harmon, demanding that he (Ramnarine), “Cease and desist from taking any further action to sell the said property.”
The letter he said was hand delivered to the liquidator on November 20, 2012. It requested that Ramnarine produce his authority to sell the land, that he cease further action to sell the land and that he withdraw the notice published in the Guyana Chronicle on November 16, 2012.
“Despite this letter from our Attorney-at-law,” Yarde posited, “And the clear intention of the GPSU to assert the right of the Co-operative Society to the land, the liquidator with the concurrence of the corroborating elements of the Government, went ahead with undue haste to sell the property and pass transport to this property within the space of one month.”
The union , “Mindful of the uses to which the land has been for a long time,” Yarde said, “he has contacted its members and certain residents to resist any attempt by persons involved in land grabbing exercises to deny them the use of the land.”
GPSU said that it is conducting comprehensive investigations into the matter and other similar situations and is thus consulting with its attorneys on their course of action. The land in question is at the centre of a government-union- community feud.
The residents and the union say that the land belongs to the community and that they are responsible for it, while the government is saying that there are not enough members in the union housing co-operative to maintain the land. They have thus liquidated the property and sold it to a businessman.
The residents and the union are however citing corruption by saying that the property was illegally sold below market price. The two parties have demanded the land be returned to its rightful owners and transport of land be withdrawn.
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