A Hindu temple under construction on Petrotrin lands in Barrackpore is now being vandalized.
Construction of the Swami Sivananda Seva Ashram began a year ago without any approvals from the Penal/ Debe Regional Corporation, the Environmental Management Authority, Water and Sewage Authority and Trinidad Petroleum Holding Limited, the umbrella company which replaced Petrotrin.
Ma Tapasya, one of the spiritual heads of the organisation admitted to Guardian Media that no approvals were granted for construction but she said a sworn affidavit was given to them by the original leaseholder of the land, granting them authorisation to use the agricultural land for religious purposes.
Although she did not provide any documents, Tapasya said the family who granted them permission to build was the Ramlal family.
She said they planned to build a home for battered women and a holistic youth centre.
“Since we started construction, we have been getting verbal abuse from people in the village “ she added.
She noted that all the galvanize sheets from the roof of the temple were stolen. She also said vandals chopped up the water lines and have been cursing her.
Asked why she built on the lands without approval, Tapasya said they were in the process of having the lease transferred from Ramlal to Spiritual head of the ashram Swami Ramananda Saraswati.
Meanwhile Saraswati said his organisation had its headquarters in India and had an interest in building a branch in Barrackpore since 2005.
He said the Ramlal family gave the go-ahead to build and after years of running around at Petrotrin they finally decided to construct despite having no approvals.
Although they have been told that construction was illegal, wrong and was a bad reflection on their religious organisation, Saraswati said, “Yes, it is Petrotrin’s land. We got no notice to stop building. We started in this village in 2001. The same people giving us problems today were once members. We have a document from 2005 and 2006, where they transferred the lease agreement to me. I had a meeting yesterday and was told it is not Petrotrin who is the owner. I am utterly confused as to who the landowners really are,” he added.
Saraswati explained that he went ahead and built the structure because he had been on the land for 16 years.
“We submitted the documents to Petrotrin since 2005 and they have not responded to us. I have been visiting the office in Pointe-a-Pierre, Clarke Road and Palo Seco. When we did the consecration of this land, the officials of Petrotrin were here and the tractors were here for nine days and no one indicated that we not supposed to be here,” Saraswati added.
However villagers of Mussarap Trace said they were opposed to outsiders coming into their village to grab land.
Indira Boodoo said the youth from the area used to play on the recreation ground near the area where the ashram was being built but they were now being chased away by officials.
“They want to build a youth centre but they depriving our children from using the ground. They just want the land. They came here one year now and building in our village without permission. There was never any Ramlal family owning this land. This is Petrotrin land. I am leasing land from Petrotrin and I don’t know any Ramlal family who leased that land,” she added.
She said if they wanted to build they could go higher up on the hill and leave the recreation ground alone.
“Our children cannot play football or cricket. What they want the young people to do. Go and smoke drugs? Leave our recreation ground alone,” she added.
Petrotrin in a statement last year reminded people to avoid the unauthorized occupation of its lands and or interactions with its many installations.
Petrotrin served a Final Cease and Desist notice to a church located opposite the Ashram.
The company stated that all the lands were freehold and encouraged villagers to report to the Company’s offices any illegal occupation of land so that investigations could be done.
Officials from the company responded to Guardian Media’s questions on the issue yesterday, saying they would give a detailed response sometime today.