Charles Kong Soo
The disaffected residents who were served eviction notices over the planned development of the Curepe interchange say the Government is using delaying tactics to frustrate them concerning the acquisition of their land.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian yesterday, spokesman for the residents, Rudi Singh said, “Since we got a letter from Government to vacate, as they say, it was not an eviction letter, but we have to move in 15 days. Subsequent to that, we had a meeting with Works Minister Rohan Sinanan at his office in Port-of-Spain on September 13, they said they were not going to forcibly put us out, they will wait until the process goes through or until the Section 4 notice expires in November."
The Ministry said the Land Acquisition Act consisted of a two-step process that entailed serving a Section 3 notice of intended acquisition, followed by a Section 4 order which empowered the State to enter and take possession of the properties within six months of serving the notice.
He said no negotiations were held since the residents' lawyers sent the ministry a letter. The ministry's lawyers responded on September 18 that they still were not completed with the instructions from their client, the Government. Once the relevant information is provided, they said, they will reply on September 21. To date, there has been no response.
Singh said they also wanted to know who on the Government side had promised the residents' land, what time period and location. He said, however, that was a secondary issue. The primary issue was the negotiations concerning the acquisition of the land.
Singh said ministry officials always said the land issue was something to accommodate the residents and would be done separately.
Singh said it seemed to the residents that Government was delaying the whole process to force an issue of evicting the residents when Section 4 expired in November.
He said they verbally communicated to Sinanan and Director of Highways Navin Ramsingh at the meeting to put their offer in writing.
Singh said Government's stonewalling tactics made it look like residents were not moving forward or doing anything.