Survey plan incorrect
THE EDITOR: With reference to our public notice which appeared in your Sunday Newsday of July 24, 2005, we would appreciate if you could publish this letter highlighting the issues involved for the further benefit of the public at large. The Pajottes are descendants of the French planters brought into Trinidad as a result of the famous cedula of November 20, 1783, issued by the King of Spain. The cedula coincide with the arrival of the most distinguished and last Spanish Governor Don Jos? Maria Chacon. His job was to try and transform the development and economy of Trinidad. On July 27, 1785, governor Don Chacon made a proclamation, the spirit of which was to remove all confusion relating to land grant and land title, and every impediment whatever to the cultivation of land. One of the first beneficiaries of the governor’s action was a French planter named Hyppolite Pajotte. He had a ten-acre parcel of land surveyed in his name within the cocoa plantation estate known as Mount Rose in the year 1793. Most important, a cemetery was marked out in minute detail within this ten-acre parcel of land. This process was also part of a bigger excise of sub-dividing the four large cocoa plantations ie Mount Rose, La Resourse, Les Fontaine, Bagatelle owned by one Michael P Maillard into smaller acreage and allotted to the French planters. Now, our complaint as stated in the abovementioned public notice and addressed to the Land Survey Board of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is as a result of a two hundred year old historical root of title as highlighted. We are again stating our strong objection to the cadastral survey plan dated July 22, 2003 from a Deed No 7525 of 1999. The cadastral survey plan in our humble view is contrary to the lands described in the schedule of the said deed. The Land Survey Board has a legal responsibility in accordance with the Land Survey Act No 33 of 1996 to address this alleged impropriety because of the risk it poses to the legitimate land owners and occupiers. It is 18 months since the objection has been lodged. The behaviour of the board is very strange indeed, since they are a public body, with public officials set up in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to look after and safeguard the public interest. What must we do to awake them from their slumber? How long will they keep dragging their feet? CARLTON A GIBBS Petit Valley (For and on behalf of the Pajotte family)
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"Survey plan incorrect"