Radhica De Silva
Commissioner of State Lands Bhamatie Seecharan says she will initiate legal action against a Debe businessman for the illegal occupation of State lands near the University of the West Indies campus.
Speaking to Guardian Media yesterday, Seecharan said her office currently does not have a demolition crew and so was unable to demolish the container house which was erected on the property at Wellington Road, Debe, recently.
“We served notices but we have no demolition crew. I will send someone again and we will have to go to court,” she said via Whatsapp.
Asked what had happened to the demolition crews, Seecharan responded, “We asked but....”
Under the cover of COVID-19 lockdown in March last year the businessman started occupying a parcel of land near Wellington Road, Debe. He was given several notices to vacate.
At that time he had planted a tomato field. He also diverted a watercourse and built a road leading to the squatting parcel. A barricade was built to keep off trespassers. Before his occupation of the land, villagers used to go fishing in the Hangman River.
A structure was subsequently built on the land, but in March it was demolished. Notices were issued by the Commissioner of State lands up to June 2020 but the land continued to be occupied.
Over the past few months, a container was brought into the State land and a roof was erected. There are no crops on the field but the parcel of land has been cultivated with coconut and banana plants around the periphery.
He was not on the land when Guardian Media visited yesterday. When Guardian Media first saw the structure in March last year, he was asked whether he had permission to build but he declined to comment. When asked for his name, address and phone for verification, he refused to provide it saying: “999. Go call that.”
Meanwhile, directly opposite the UWI campus along the M2 Ring Road, another man, Randy Rahim has also cleared a parcel of land and has built a structure. This too has come under scrutiny.
When asked whether he had permission to build and occupy, Rahim said no.
Rahim said, “I was dealing with the Ministry of Agriculture. I went to Port-of-Spain and Commission of State Lands, a few different places for that document. I applied, but did not get through with nothing yet.”
He said he had been occupying the land for 10 years but when told this was not so based on GPS evidence Rahim said he built the structure “four or five years ago.”
He claimed that he had been staying at a nearby house and planting but when told this was not true, Rahim admitted the shed was built “two or three years ago, long before COVID.”
Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat did not answer questions about the lack of resources in the office of the Commissioner of State Lands.
However, in response to a question about the squatters, Rambharat said, “The matter was in the hands of the COSL. You can ask the COSL or PS for an update.”
Last year, Inspector at the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands (OCSL) Tyrone Ramadhin said they needed equipment, manpower and police protection to protect State lands.
He said even in cases where the OCSL brought offenders to court, the cases fell apart.
He noted that more than 200 cases involving the State and illegal land occupiers were dismissed in 2019 because of a lack of legal representation on the part of the State.