OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Tu­na­puna Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion has giv­en the res­i­dents of Bam­boo Num­ber Two sev­en days to de­mol­ish the con­tro­ver­sial se­cu­ri­ty guard booth in the area.

The booth, which has been con­struct­ed at the en­trance to the Val­sayn com­mu­ni­ty, has been the sub­ject of a bat­tle be­tween the cor­po­ra­tion and the vil­lagers re­gard­ing its le­gal­i­ty.

How­ev­er, com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist and busi­ness­man In­shan Ish­mael said yes­ter­day that the vil­lagers will chal­lenge the cor­po­ra­tion, and res­i­dents are ex­pect­ed to meet to­mor­row at the booth to raise con­cerns.

Con­struc­tion of the booth was com­plet­ed dur­ing the week.
On Thurs­day, how­ev­er, the cor­po­ra­tion de­liv­ered its third no­tice of vi­o­la­tion, this time in­form­ing the vil­lagers that the booth will be de­mol­ished in sev­en days, and the cost will be borne by those who con­struct­ed it.

The no­tice in­di­cat­ed that the vi­o­la­tion was the unau­tho­rised con­struc­tion of a guard booth at the lo­ca­tion and al­so high­light­ed con­cerns about the de­sign, deem­ing it in­suf­fi­cient and un­safe.

These vi­o­la­tions are cit­ed un­der the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion Act 230 of 1960, Chap­ter 35:01, and the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion Act 21 of 1990, Chap­ter 25:04.

Ish­mael ar­gued that the booth be­longed to the com­mu­ni­ty and was be­ing built to help pro­tect res­i­dents and busi­ness own­ers. He al­so al­leged that oth­er struc­tures and ac­tiv­i­ties in the area were be­ing al­lowed, while their booth was be­ing tar­get­ed. He has since chal­lenged the cor­po­ra­tion to de­mol­ish the struc­ture.

Ish­mael and res­i­dents said the se­cu­ri­ty booth was be­ing im­ple­ment­ed due to claims of ex­tor­tion at­tempts, rob­beries and oth­er crimes in the area.

Ish­mael said the booth was ap­proved by the area’s vil­lage coun­cil and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in­tend­ed to take on the cor­po­ra­tion legal­ly if any ac­tion is tak­en.