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Monday, July 14, 2025

One man stands in the way of UWI Debe Campus construction

...re­lo­ca­tion $$ can't com­pen­sate says Pe­nal farmer

by

20120512

Af­ter pay­ing $7 mil­lion to re­lo­cate 49 farm­ers from 100 acres of agri­cul­tur­al lands to be­gin con­struc­tion of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine, South Cam­pus in Debe/Pe­nal, one de­fi­ant farmer is stand­ing in the way of its de­vel­op­ment.

Sha­heed Diljohn, 49, has re­fused to sur­ren­der his rights to his two-acre par­cel of land at La For­tune, af­ter he was of­fered $140,000 by the Es­tate Man­age­ment and Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd (EM­B­DC), there­by de­lay­ing the start of con­struc­tion. Diljohn had the op­tion of re­lo­cat­ing to Pe­tit Morne or ac­cept­ing mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion, nei­ther of which he felt had met his ex­pec­ta­tion.

Diljohn is one of 55 farm­ers who were asked to give up their leased agri­cul­tur­al lands. Chi­nese con­struc­tion firm, Chi­na Jiang­su In­ter­na­tion­al last month se­cured a half-bil­lion-dol­lar con­tract to build the cam­pus, which in its first phase will con­sist a Fac­ul­ty of Law, mul­ti-use Aca­d­e­m­ic and Stu­dent Union build­ings, as well as a Stu­dent Hall of Res­i­dence and Out­door Recre­ation­al Fa­cil­i­ties.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar turned the sod for the uni­ver­si­ty on Jan­u­ary 30, 2012. Diljohn feels the $140,000 of­fer was in­suf­fi­cient. Nor was he of­fered com­pen­sa­tion for loss­es in­curred and in­con­ve­nience caused by the Gov­ern­ment.

In 2009, Diljohn re­ceived a 30-year deed from Ca­roni 1975 Ltd af­ter he ac­cept­ed VSEP, hav­ing worked at the com­pa­ny for 18 years as a crane op­er­a­tor. The EM­B­DC in 2010 was named as the own­er of all state agri­cul­tur­al lands at La For­tune which the farm­ers leased.

Diljohn's crop failed

In a let­ter, dat­ed Au­gust 2011, sent to EM­B­DC's CEO See­bal­ack Singh by Diljohn's at­tor­ney Stephen Boodram, it was ex­plained that in 2010, his client (Diljohn) ob­tained a loan from the Agri­cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Bank (ADB) for the pur­pose of cul­ti­vat­ing the said lands.

The crop, Boodram ex­plained, failed be­cause the EM­B­DC re­fused to as­sure the ADB in writ­ing that the said land would not be ac­quired by the Gov­ern­ment. As a re­sult, Boodram stat­ed, Diljohn could not re-fi­nance his loan, since the EM­B­DC was in the process of ac­quir­ing the land from his client for the pur­pose of the South Cam­pus.

Boodram called on the EM­B­DC to re­lo­cate his client to a suit­able lo­ca­tion or to ad­e­quate­ly com­pen­sate him for the two acres. Boodram al­so asked for $85,000 com­pen­sa­tion to cov­er the cost of dig­ging a pond, lay­ing of pipelines and for loss of crops. In re­sponse, via a let­ter dat­ed Au­gust 16, 2011, Singh, in­di­cat­ed to Boodram that the "the EM­B­DC is not in the process of ac­quir­ing the land for the UWI South Cam­pus" and the farmer was free to con­tin­ue tend­ing his crops.

Hav­ing put his mind to rest, Diljohn said, he pur­chased 13,000 hot pep­per plants and 5,000 toma­to seeds which he be­gan plant­i­ng. How­ev­er, on No­vem­ber 23, 2011, Diljohn re­ceived a let­ter signed by Singh, ask­ing him to sur­ren­der his lease. Singh re­mind­ed Diljohn that the Gov­ern­ment had the op­tion to ac­quire his land un­der the Land Ac­qui­si­tion Act if the land is need­ed in­ter alia in the pub­lic in­ter­est.

A raw deal, life on hold

Diljohn said since then, his life has been on hold. He has not earned a cent, can't re­pair his car and un­able to ser­vice his $189,000 ADB loan. "My whole life has turned up­side down," Diljohn said on Tues­day. The hot pep­pers and toma­toes, Diljohn said, could have net­ted $500,000, if they were plant­ed.

"I am not against the uni­ver­si­ty be­ing built be­cause I know my three grand­chil­dren will ben­e­fit lat­er on. But they (Gov­ern­ment) go­ing about things the wrong way. They did not even hold a pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion in the dis­trict to hear the views of the peo­ple." Diljohn feels he was giv­en a raw deal. He said, "While the Prime Min­is­ter could show­er her grand­chil­dren with things I can't give mine any­thing."

Faced with fi­nan­cial trou­bles, Diljohn said he had owed fam­i­ly and friends over $100,000. "I am sur­viv­ing on bor­rowed mon­ey, which I am un­able to re­pay. I am will­ing to set­tle with them but they want to pay me next to noth­ing." Diljohn said he has re­ceived no word from Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath, who along with Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Fazal Karim and Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal who he had met in Jan­u­ary, to iron out the is­sue.

"Min­is­ter Bharath promised to re­lo­cate me to lands clos­er to my Mo­hess Road, Pe­nal, home. But I am still wait­ing." At a farm­ers' fo­rum on May 5, Diljohn raised the is­sue with pres­i­dent of the Trinidad Uni­fied Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion Shi­raz Khan.

Bharath-No abuse of pow­er

On Wednes­day, Bharath ad­mit­ted that the Gov­ern­ment had opt­ed to en­ter in­to pri­vate treaty with 55 farm­ers to pur­chase the land from them at open mar­ket val­ue, at a price to be de­ter­mined by the Com­mis­sion­er of Val­u­a­tions, which falls un­der the fi­nance min­istry, rather than ac­quire it through com­pul­so­ry land ac­qui­si­tion.

Bharath said the val­u­a­tion was not done by him or the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands. Of the 55 farm­ers, Bharath said 49 ac­cept­ed the of­fer of $140,000 each based on a pri­vate treaty arrange­ment in Jan­u­ary. The five re­main­ing farm­ers did not show up. The pay­ments to the 49 farm­ers, amount­ed to ap­prox­i­mate­ly $7 mil­lion.

"Mr Diljohn was the on­ly farmer who re­fused to ac­cept the of­fer of re­lo­ca­tion as well as open mar­ket val­u­a­tion." Bharath said the arrange­ment was to move farm­ers as close to their farms and where they live. "I don't know if the EM­B­DC has been able to find a par­cel of land with re­gard to Mr Diljohn's pref­er­ence. There is an of­fer of re­lo­ca­tion on the ta­ble for him as well. I am not sure where that mat­ter has reached. I will have to fol­low up to find out what has hap­pened."

Bharath said he would con­tin­ue to ne­go­ti­ate with him to come to some kind of am­i­ca­ble so­lu­tion. Bharath said Diljohn had re­quest­ed "in the re­gion of over $600,000, which is clear­ly not ac­cept­able." Asked if he was will­ing to raise the $140,000 com­pen­sa­tion of­fer, Bharath said he could not do it for one farmer, if 49 farm­ers had ac­cept­ed the same.

"We have to treat every­one fair­ly. If it is that Mr Diljohn does not wish to sell the land, then we are look­ing at the op­tion of re­lo­cat­ing him." Should Diljohn refuse to leave the land, Bharath said the Gov­ern­ment al­ways has the op­tion of com­pul­so­ry land ac­qui­si­tion. Bharath said that was not an op­tion they want­ed to ex­er­cise or pur­sue since this would be to the detri­ment of Diljohn.

"I re­al­ly sym­pa­thise with Mr Diljohn. It is not my in­ten­tion of the min­istry to abuse our pow­er in any way. This is a ma­jor pub­lic project that has to go on."

Karim: UWI to sign con­tract

Karim said based on feed­back from the Com­mis­sion­er of State Land Ku­mar Koonoolal, Diljohn has been oc­cu­py­ing his two-acre plot Lot No 740, which he is en­ti­tled to, and Lot No 739, which he has en­croached on. Karim ex­plained that Diljohn's land fell with­in the bound­ary of Lot 739 of the ser­vice land. "Those two plots we have asked him to stay clear of."

Karim said be­cause the mat­ter has not been re­solved the Gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to ne­go­ti­ate with Diljohn for an agree­ment, ei­ther to be com­pen­sat­ed or re­lo­cat­ed. Karim said he has been con­sult­ing with UWI's prin­ci­pal Prof Clement Sankat.

"Our next move would be take a note to Cab­i­net to com­pul­so­ry ac­quire the land to start the project." Asked when con­struc­tion will be­gin, Karim said it all de­pend­ed on when the uni­ver­si­ty signs the con­tract.

Singh: De­lay in con­struc­tion

Ad­mit­ting that Diljohn was de­lay­ing con­struc­tion of the uni­ver­si­ty, Singh said he could not tell if the EM­B­DC had lo­cat­ed an­oth­er piece of land for Diljohn. "I am not sure-that mat­ter is about two months old. I would have to con­sult with the EM­B­DC to find out."


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