Residents of Pigeon Island on the East Coast of Demerara are incensed at the erecting of a plant shop on the state reserve and the dispute has now drawn in several ministers of government and the chairman of a NDC.
The plant shop is owned by Phulmatie Budhram and Seudayal Singh who started erecting it two Sundays ago after their other shop on the Railway Embankment and Agriculture Road was torn down two Fridays ago. Budhram yesterday told Stabroek News that she had gotten permission for the plant shop from Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill but the minister has vehemently denied this. Budhram’s account of the permission has also been supported by the Chairman of the Better Hope Neighbourhood Democractic Council (NDC), Zaman Shaw.
The matter came to public notice after residents of Pigeon Island drew up a petition on Wednesday December 2nd urging Edghill to intervene and stop the construction. The petitioners also copied their letter to Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall and Shaw. The petition was also sent to the media.
The petition highlighted a number of reasons against the shop including that there were already two residents on the island with plant businesses. The petition also said that chemicals would be sprayed on the plants and this would affect the Pizza Hut situated across from the plant shop. Furthermore, staff from Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) had expressed concern over the location of the plant shop as GWI has a control valve within the vicinity which if damaged could affect residents of not only Pigeon Island but those living in Chateau Margot, Success and La Bonne Intention (LBI).
When Stabroek News arrived at the plant shop yesterday, persons were seen carrying plants into the newly constructed green house. Budhram, a single mother of four, told Stabroek News that she worked with the National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute (NAREI) as a labourer for eight years before venturing into a plant business almost two years ago. Budhram said that she operated her business at the junction of the Railway Embankment and Agriculture Road until two Fridays ago when persons arrived and began dismantling her plant shop there and destroying some of her plants.
“I write to the Ministry of Agriculture in the previous government asking them to contribute to me, a piece of lease land. I don’t want to make anything permanent, just a shade house. They send me back a letter saying to go into the NDC and ask them. I send a letter to the NDC of [Beterverwagting/BV] and they grant me a piece of lease land at Agriculture Road,” said Budhram. She further went on to say that residents in that area began making issues about her operating her business from there which resulted in her later receiving a letter from the BV NDC to dismantle her structure and leave within three months. This was earlier this year.
The woman said that following the notice, she wrote a letter to the PPP at Freedom House asking for their assistance but was told that “when they get into power” she needed to return with another letter and they would help her.
“I write letter to Ministry of Agriculture, [Ministry of] Housing, Lands and Survey, Local Government, the previous First Lady, and the Office of the President; all from the previous administration”, Budhram said. She explained that when she approached Lands and Survey she requested a section in LBI where GWI currently has a pump set up but was turned down.
Following the swearing in of President Irfaan Ali, Budhram said she wrote a letter the week after and delivered it to Freedom House. She added that this time she made out the letter to the current president as well as sent one to the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, to whom she said she paid a visit. Minister Mustapha, she said, told her he’d have someone look into the matter. Meanwhile, the president she said replied in a letter telling her that he would have the Ministry of Public Works investigate the matter.
“The said thing, that I write the president and ask him not to happen, happened two Fridays ago. The BV NDC chairman and the councillors come. I had two bearing tree in front of the plant shop; they chop them down, [break] the front fence, throw all the material in the tractor and carry them away; they bring back the wood after. They trampled up all my soursop. We ask Minister (in the Ministry of Local Government) Anand Persaud if we could get the place next to GWI and he said no because there were squatters there. He called the chairman from the Better Hope NDC. The Better Hope Chairman said he has this piece here. We didn’t ask for here. They put us here. Then Minister Anand Persaud told us to write a letter and [take] it in and he will bring it up at the meeting. NDC tell me I could rent the land until, and said that I needed to get a letter from the Ministry of Public Works because it’s the road shoulder. I went and see Minister Edghill Wednesday gone. He said ‘madam, I cannot give you anything in writing but I can give you instructions. Go and build your plant shop. Do what you have to do until you get a piece of land, you will move.’ I asked him, how I can confirm that and he said he was giving me his personal number and that if
anybody comes to make trouble, I must call him and then he said, he was calling the NDC chairman now and he called him in front of me on speaker and tell him I’m making a plant shop and that he mustn’t interfere with [my operations] for a lil while until I catch meself up. Next thing you know, I hear the residents them sign a letter and put it on Minister Anand Persaud desk, on Minister Edghill desk and Minister Dharamlall desk,” said the woman.
Edghill last night denied Budhram’s claim.
“I have given no one, I can give no one, neither am I authorized to give anyone permission to build any structure on a government reserve”, he said. The minister further added that he met with the woman recently where she requested from him a letter to build the plant shop but that he told her that he was not authorized to give permission for construction on a government reserve.
Minister Dharamlall when contacted by Stabroek News said that he was aware of the ongoing matter but did not know of the details as he was out of town but that he intended to look into the issue.
Minister Persaud was also contacted by Stabroek News and he said that he did not receive the petition from the residents of the Pigeon Island and added that he will not publicly comment until he was ready to do so.
Better Hope NDC Chairman Shaw when contacted, told this newspaper that when Budhram approached the NDC, her matter was brought before the NDC which did not object to her building the plant shop on the government reserve but added that the decision taken was that she could only do so once the Ministry of Public Works granted permission. Shaw added that the go ahead to build was given to him by Edghill himself.
Nyall Jodhan, vice president of the recently founded Community Development Council (CDC) is among the fifty residents who signed the petition for the removal of the plant shop.
During Stabroek News’ visit to Pigeon Island yesterday, Jodhan said on Tuesday he and other residents saw loads of sand being dumped on the reserve but didn’t know at the time the reason behind this since the community’s streets were recently fixed.
He noted that he was in the city when a resident contacted him and told him that a plant shop was being built. They were shocked that a government official would give approval to build on the reserve.
Jodhan said that one of the concerns is that because of the location of the plant shop, an excavator wanting to clean the trench at that location will be unable to.
“I wondered what could we do and I call the police and the police explained that they cannot come and move (the shop owner), we have to make a report to the NDC who will get [the police] to come and remove them. I call Mr. Zaman Shaw and I said ‘man what is going on out here’ and he said that the government gave permission for that chap to construct there. I inquired from him who in the government and he said Minister Edghill … I called Minister Edghill directly and asked him what was happening and he said Mr. Zaman Shaw gave them permission so Mr. Shaw said it was the Minister who told them to build there and the Minister said it was Mr. Zaman Shaw who told them to go there, so everybody start to pass the buck because they know it’s nonsense. They know you can’t give squatters government reserve to squat. They moved them from a bypass road or a minor road in Agriculture Road to put them on a major road on the East Coast main road in front of a residential area,” Jodhan stated
The man said he dropped the petition to Ministers Edghill, Dharamlall and Persaud, adding that he called the following day to see whether the ministers had read the letter but could not reach them.
“This just goes to show that they just don’t care about our plight. In the meantime this guy (Seudayal Singh) keeps constructing here and has far gone,” said Jodhan.
Meanwhile, a woman who has a mobile hot dog business told Stabroek News that she was told by the owners of the plant shop earlier last week that she needed to move her hotdog stand as they owned the spot now. However, she added that she has not heard from them about that since.
