Camille Clarke

Farm­ers have filed an in­junc­tion re­strain­ing Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) per­son­nel and its agents from bull­doz­ing 100 acres of farm land at Cres­cent Gar­dens, Mau­si­ca Road, D'Abadie.Bull­doz­ers de­stroyed sev­er­al acres of crops yes­ter­day be­fore word of the in­junc­tion was com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the HDC.In an in­ter­view, farmer Vin­da Mara­jh said an at­tor­ney rep­re­sent­ing him­self and an­oth­er farmer, Ja­son Kan­ic, filed an in­junc­tion be­fore Jus­tice Vasheist Kokaram in the Port-of-Spain High Court yes­ter­day.Mara­jh said: "We went with at­tor­ney Lemuel Mur­phy. They (HDC) did not serve us any no­tice. This is a crim­i­nal act. We have one min­is­ter say­ing one thing and the oth­er some­thing else." He said the land was used by four farm­ers to plant crops.

"This is a to­tal sur­prise and there was no of­fi­cial warn­ing or a phone call from the HDC," Mara­jh said."We have to fol­low this up...I am in shock while I am here walk­ing on the land."The farm­ers plant­ed sweet pota­toes, pineap­ple, bo­di, cas­sa­va, peas, corn and oth­er veg­eta­bles.Mur­phy said the ex parte in­junc­tion was grant­ed, based on the fact that the land was used by the farm­ers since 1979."We got an in­junc­tion based on that fact," he said."The land ap­par­ent­ly was state land, but has now been vest­ed in the HDC and it was the HDC which com­mis­sioned the bull­doz­ers to clear out the land.

"They nev­er gave the farm­ers any no­tice that they were com­ing to clear the land."Mur­phy said said the farm­ers spoke with HDC's CEO Jear­lean John in Jan­u­ary this year."Noth­ing ma­te­ri­alised af­ter that and we heard what was go­ing to hap­pen by ru­mour," he said."The in­junc­tion will re­strain them for a cer­tain pe­ri­od of time...We do not have a date set."They are re­strained from putting equip­ment on the land and de­stroy­ing crops in the mean­while.

"At­tor­ney Criston Williams was al­so with me to get the in­junc­tion."Up to late yes­ter­day evening, pres­i­dent of the Sheep and Goat Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, Shi­raz Khan, was seek­ing le­gal ad­vice for land that was al­so bull­dozed at Egypt Trace and Dass Trace in Ch­agua­nas."(Food Pro­duc­tion) Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath said a week ago that any­one who oc­cu­pies land and is pro­duc­ing crops would not be in­ter­fered with," Khan said."He gave us the as­sur­ance that it would not be de­stroyed...Now, lo and be­hold, look what hap­pens on East­er Mon­day morn­ing.

"The Pres­i­dent and Prime Min­is­ter said in their East­er ad­dress to the na­tion that they want more spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, but all along they want to bull­doze these peo­ple place on East­er Mon­day."He said it was an un­for­tu­nate in­ci­dent af­ter years of hard work when food was in short sup­ply."On this hol­i­day, they are de­stroy­ing 80 acres of pro­duce when the Gov­ern­ment is cry­ing on na­tion­al TV that they are putting in in­cen­tives to in­crease pro­duc­tion...It is re­al­ly up­set­ting," Khan said."It is high time peo­ple stand up against this. In Mau­si­ca, there were over 25 heav­i­ly-armed po­lice­men, and eight heav­i­ly-armed po­lice of­fi­cers in Ch­agua­nas."

Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Food Crop Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion Ter­rence Hay­wood said the as­so­ci­a­tion would vis­it HDC to­day."We got an in­junc­tion and we got word that they (HDC per­son­nel) were com­ing last Fri­day," he said."There have been peo­ple farm­ing there for 30 years and the farm­ers have to pay rent."They have paid the State rent for the whole year at the War­den's Of­fice, and al­so land tax. Yet they are still com­ing and bull­doze the land. We are go­ing by both min­istries to­mor­row."Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for D'Abadie/O'Meara, Anil Roberts, said:

"We got a text from the farm­ers about what hap­pened."I knew it (land) was ear­marked for hous­ing and some of the farm­ers gave me a doc­u­ment con­cern­ing that," he said. "I put it through to the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion for more in­for­ma­tion and that is all I know at this time."John, the HDC CEO, said the prop­er­ty was ear­marked for hous­ing years ago."It has been for quite some time now," she said.Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath was un­avail­able for com­ment.