High Court blocks demolition crew

FORMER Attorney-General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj became the saviour of 25 Central Trinidad tenants when he obtained a court order on Holy Thursday night to prevent the destruction of their homes.

When Newsday visited the area yesterday, former Caroni (1975) Limited employee, Harripersad Ragoo recalled that he first started renting land at Endeavour Branch Road in 1966. “From 1966 to 1980, nobody ever came to collect rent,” he said. He stated that in 1980, a woman named Ballul Ali claimed to be the landlord and ordered the 25 tenants not to pay any rent until she gave them instructions to do so. “Up to now, no rent collected,” Ragoo added. He said a woman named Sakina Gafoor subsequently claimed to be the landlord and told the tenants that she planned to sell the land at $30,000 an acre. However, Ragoo said nothing ever came of that particular initiative. “In 1998, Imitiaz Mohammed come and say he is the owner of the land. I say I didn’t know that,” Ragoo stated.

He said Mohammed subsequently held a meeting with the tenants where he made an offer to them of one lot of free land but the tenants rejected it.. “Saturday morning I working on a piece of drain, I see this bulldozer cross that line. This man started pushing down all my crop without any notice, court order or anything,” Ragoo declared. Pointing towards the now barren patch of land beside his home, Ragoo said that land was previously covered with several fruit trees whose produce he used to “sell to earn a little dollar”. The man added that had his neighbours not formed a human barricade in front of his house, his home would have suffered the same fate as his crops. Ragoo said last Sunday, the tenants had to form a human barricade once again to prevent another house from being bulldozed.

He stated that in the wake of that incident, he went to the Land and Rentpayer’s Association and attorney Prem Persad-Maharaj filed an injunction preventing Mohammed from demolishing his home. However Ragoo said that when Mohammed returned on Thursday morning, renewing his threats to break down their homes, they realised that the first injunction did not offer protection for all of the tenants’ homes and they sought legal help from Maharaj. Attorney Garnet Mungalsingh said that together with Maharaj and Persad-Maharaj, the matter was brought before Madame Justice Mira Dean-Armorer at the Hall of Justice on Holy Thursday and at 9.30 pm the judge granted an injunction to prevent Mohammed from demolishing their houses. Mungalsingh added that the substantive matter will be heard in the San Fernando Chamber Court on Monday, April 28. Ragoo said while the tenants were confident that Maharaj would successfully argue their case in court, they could not help but feel very uneasy about the whole situation. “We feel real threatened about that. We always have to be looking out expecting that something could happen any time,” he stated.

Another tenant, 80-year-old Jassodra Edoo, said she has lived at Endeavour Branch Road since 1983. Saying that she has survived four heart attacks and an ulcer to date, Edoo stated that she became gravely ill with worry when attempts were made to demolish the two houses last weekend. She added that the entire episode has been especially traumatic for the older tenants who practically carved a home for themselves during a time when there were few amenities at Endeavour Branch Road.