Dear Editor,
When will Minister Nadir and the Chief National Development Coopera-tive Officer, Mr Kareem Abdul-Jabar, intervene to stop the taking over of some members’ land in the Belle Vue Scheme? The members have signed more than one petition and have given it to the Belle Vue Cane Farming and Marketing Cooperative Society, Minister Nadir and Mr Abdul-Jabar, but no action has been taken. For over two years, the members of the society have been calling for Minister Nadir and Mr Jabar to file an injunction against the cooperative’s committee of management and a certain individual to stop all trespassing, and the taking over and selling of members’ shares and interest.
The individual at the centre of it all is boasting openly in Belle Vue Scheme that he has connections in the government, among other things. He is talking loudly and openly for many people to hear, that nobody can stop him from taking over this cooperative society and that the ministry would then give him title for the land.
The Belle Vue Cane Farming and Marketing Cooperative Society, Regis-tration # 967 is made up of 55 members and is one of seven cooperatives that has been marketing sugar cane to Wales Estate, West Bank Demerara, since 1956. Farmers’ cane contributes up to 50% of the sugar produced at Wales Estate.
Members of the cooperative want compensation from the individual and his agents for trespassing on their land because it prevents the members from doing work on their land.
They want compensation to help build up the canefields’ dam-bed that the agents of the individual bulldozed and flattened. We normally make a dam-bed around a field a little higher than inside because it can be use to flood the field with water if need be, to kill pests.
This cooperative has never allowed one family or member to buy and own more than one share and interest. And it has never allowed the committee to terminate members’ membership and sell it to one person. This is a hostile take-over of our cooperative society and a violation of the cooperative society spirit and act. This entire block of 704.55 acres lease-land belongs to this cooperative society and its members. The members have the first right to buy and increase their acreage.
In November-December 2009 and January 2010, Balkarran assisted this cooperative to prepare a five-year development plan and submit it to Minister Robert Persaud, Wales Estate GM, and GuySuCo. He also made representation to the Ministry of Agriculture, GuySuCo and Wales Estate, to get a lease for 25 years.
He and some members were also seeking help for the cooperative and members to get an agri-loan from a commercial bank and a grant from the National Cane Farmers Commission to do developmental work and purchase 15 cane punts, so that the members do not have to sell their membership, shares and interest. This investment will definitely help reduce the cost of production and help increase income and production as well as strengthen the cooperative.
The affected members submitted several letters to the Office of the President, seeking his intervention and a meeting with him, without any success.
Yours faithfully,
Balram Balkarran
Former National Committee Member for the Guyana Cane Farmers Association
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Chief Cooperative Officer in the Ministry of Labour, Mr Kareem Abdul-Jabar, for any comment he might have wished to make and received no response.
