Having occupied an office Rienzi Complex for almost half a century, Basdeo Panday, the founder of the United National Congress and former president general of the All Trinidad General Sugar Workers’ Union, has been evicted of his union’s headquarters in Couva.
Panday, a lifetime member of the union, a vehicle he used to get into political power, said he has been part of Rienzi since 1970 which he built with his own two hands.
The current president general of the union Nirvan Maharaj was a protégé of Panday and ironically, it was him who evicted Panday.
During an interview, Panday said he was made an honorary member of the union in 1995 after becoming prime minister.
“At that time, the union under Sam Maharaj told me I will always have a place at Rienzi,” Panday recalled.
He went on to form the Basdeo Panday Foundation and over the years helped hundreds of poor people free of charge. Panday denied that he was ever a tenant at Rienzi.
Asked whether he had been paying $3,000 per month as rent, Panday said no. He explained that as an MP he was given a stipend to open a sub-office but seeing that he already had an office in Rienzi, he offered to give the union that money.
Panday said he believed the reason for his eviction was because the union had become “money-hungry.”
“I was at Rienzi up to yesterday where I attended to the poor people. This morning when my secretary went to the office, they locked the doors to my office and put a chain around it. She had no entry. They have been trying to extract money from me for a long time,” Panday said.
He added, “The union is money hungry under the pretext that I am a tenant. When the government offered to give MP’s a sub-office, I was already in occupation of that office so I gave the union the money. I was never a tenant,” Panday said.
He also said politics may also be a contributory factor to his eviction as his daughter, Mickela, is the leader of the National Patriotic Front and Maharaj is the political leader of the National Solidarity Assembly, which is housed at Rienzi.
In response to Panday’s claims, Maharaj said Panday was a tenant who had a leased arrangement to occupy a space at Rienzi.
He said Panday owed $500,000 in rent. Maharaj said it hurt him deeply to evict Panday, who had given his life to support the working class.
“I am hurt and pained. I love and respect Mr Panday but I cannot allow this love and respect to destroy the union that Mr Panday built. Mr Panday is my hero but I am also the president general and I have to do what I must for the survival of the union. We cannot give up space for free,” Maharaj said.
He explained that in 2012, he tried to renegotiate a lease with Panday but he refused. At the time Panday was paying $3,000 rent but when the union lost 15,000 plus members, Maharaj said he decided to raise Panday’s rent from $3,000 to $6,000.
“Mr Panday never paid for lights, water, toiletries or air-conditioning. He refused to meet with us. He stopped paying the rent in 2012. We wrote to him consistently to get the rent but he refused to renegotiate. He became a month-to-month tenant. We are calling on him to pay his outstanding arrears because he is owing the union $500,000,” Maharaj said.
He added that Panday was served a letter of eviction on February 6.
I cannot run the union based on emotion and sentiment. I have to run it on logic. I told Mr Panday that I have to make sure the union survives another 81 years,” he added. He said Mr Panday was free to come in and take up his personal belongings at any time.