Latest update December 15th, 2024 12:58 AM
Latest News
- US EXIM Bank loan for Gas-to-Energy project exposes institution to political, financial and litigation risks – Int’l lawyer
- PPP and PNC misleading Guyana on windfall taxes
- President announces one-month bonus for Joint Services
- Cop, civilian arrested after two-vehicle accident involving police car
- UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on official visit to Guyana
Seafield Co-op takes MMA-ADA to court over seized farmlands
A West Berbice Cooperative Society has taken the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) to court, challenging a decision by the body to seize over 545 acres of land.
Lloyd Moore
In the civil action filed yesterday, the Seafield Cooperative Land Society Limited of West Berbice, asked for orders that compel MMA-ADA to show reasons why its decision to take the lands and allocate it to others, should not be overturned. The Cooperative is arguing that the decision was arbitrary and breached its constitutional rights to the protection of its property.
The matter will come up again on October 27, in the Bail Court. The Plaintiff is being represented by Attorney-at-law, Basil Williams,
According to the court documents sworn to by Secretary to the Cooperative, Lloyd Moore, the society is a legal registered body which comprises members who are proprietors of the lands situated in Seafield Village. The land was acquired by ancestors of the proprietors from Plantation Seafield, after the abolition of slavery. However, they were never given individual transports of the lands which stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Abary River.
In the 1920s, attempts were made to survey the lands in Seafield Village, but only the northern section was completed, with transports issued for these “frontlands”.
Despite this, occupation of the backlands also continued, with a fence built by the ancestors in the backlands behind the Seafield Village. As a matter of fact, the village even established one of the earliest councils to which rates and taxes were paid.
According to the court documents, there were no actions to stop the occupation of the backlands until now.
The Cooperative contends that the MMA-ADA, after being established in 1977 to manage the area, was only responsible for administering state lands. Of course, this does not include the land holdings of the Cooperative.
Moore argued that the only charges that the society was responsible for to the MMA-ADA would be for drainage and irrigation fees. This has been happening since May 1985 when the Cooperative was established.
According to Moore, in March this year, the society met with Rudolph Gajraj, the Chief Executive Officer of MMA-ADA, who told the body that they owe in excess of $11M, a charge that they denied. The society said it paid over $7.5M.
In June, the society said that it saw notices in the newspaper in which MMA-ADA was signaling its intentions to regularize state lands under the control of some Cooperatives. Seafield lands were listed.
“That on the 17th of June at a meeting at the MMA-ADA’s office held pursuant to the said notice, Mr. Gajraj told the gathering to apply for lands published in the said notice as state lands, including the society’s said lands for which they would have to pay $28,000 per acre and that he could give no guarantee that a previous occupant could get back their land.”
Moore said that the MMA-ADA’s actions or the society’s indebtedness to the body does not allow for the takeover of the lands. Rather, the MMA-ADA should have gone to court.
“The MMA-ADA recourse is to a court of law to recover any money owed to it.”
The society also said in court documents that it had 41 members, from the Seafield area.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Beyond the politics of pay
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The art of governance, they say, lies in the delicate balancing act between pragmatism... more
Let the asylum seekers go: a first step for Venezuela to rebuild relations in the Americas
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – The government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela has steadfast support from many... more
Weekend Cartoon
