Prakash: They will have to go through me

RESIDENTS and business owners from the Southern Main Road and Spring Village in Curepe, are in the crosshairs of the government, which, two weeks ago sent them eviction notices, ordering they leave their property within 14 days. Tomorrow the government will be entitled to evict the residents, according to the notice, and use the land to build an interchange between the Southern Main Road and the Churchill Roosevelt Highway.

However, if they are to claim the land from the residents, they will have to go through one man – MP for St Augustine Prakash Ramadhar. He is saying no way to the government’s offer.

“What Nazi Germany did to the Jews was legal. What happened in South Africa with apartheid was legal. What is happening with the opposition in Venezuela is legal. If the government intends to use the law to act unlawfully, we will stand with you. On Tuesday morning, rest assured, if there should be one effort taken to remove a single resident, they would have to go through me,” Ramadhar said to residents and business owners yesterday, during a press conference on the Southern Main Road.

Ramadhar was accompanied by former works and transport minister, Devant Maharaj, and an attorney representing the residents. Residents told reporters they have been co-operative with the government since they were first notified of the intention to acquire the land in 2013, and were negotiating on compensation, but those negotiations were not complete. They said the eviction notices came “like a thief in the night.”

Rooplal said it was in 2013 that residents first got notice of proposed acquisition of the land for the public purpose, which came in accordance with section three of the Land Acquisition Act. But it was not until 2017 that government took the next step of moving to section 4 of the act, letting the residents know that it intended to move forward with the acquisition.

Rooplal added that the residents also surveyed the land with the help of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) valuators selected from a list of valuators provided to residents by the government, and were not only promised compensation, but a rental allowance for six months, to assist while the to-be displaced residents found another place to call home.

Then without warning on August 27 and 28, they were slapped with eviction notices.

Rajendra Maraj, one of the residents of the 15 homes that will be affected, said the situation which has led to the elders of the community being traumatised, was simply “sad.” “It is very sad to know that the residents here have to do this right now, when we tried in all manners to negotiate with the rightful people involved. It is so sad that I had to hear elders in our community crying because the government sent them notices. We had to ask for help. I hope they can shed some light onto this darkness that we are in.” Maraj said.

“We the residents are not against the project,” said Rudy Singh, another affected resident, “We are in no way against anything the government is doing for the development. We are for everything that is going on, but we want a fair compensation.”

Newsday was told government was offering compensation of $150 per square foot, for land that was estimated by valuators at more than $250 per square foot. For one property which was bought at about $16 million, the owner was offered $7 million.