THE EVOLVING TecKnologies and Enterprise Development Company (eTecK) will meet on Tuesday with occupants of land earmarked for the construction of the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate to settle their continued occupation.
Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh and attorney Gerald Ramdeen are also expected to attend the meeting, scheduled for 1.30 pm at the Tringen Administration Building, Savonetta, Couva.
The meeting follows last week’s bulldozing of crops and homes of residents, who claim they have occupied the site for the past 25 years and have certain entitlements.
However, eTecK contends they are illegally occupying the site and there is no evidence of occupation before 2014.
Indarsingh has taken up the cause of 14 families who are on the verge of being evicted by eTecK, including exploring legal options.
Indarsingh told Newsday the destruction of crops and buildings came in spite of engagement with eTecK chairman Imtiaz Ahamad and line Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon for an urgent meeting.
He labelled the act “a reign of terror on these poor people in this pandemic time.”
Residents have been told the bulldozers will return.
“They bulldozed a woman’s outhouse. Since then, she has been having a mental meltdown because she has no place to go. What was the purpose of that?" Indarsingh asked.
“Millions are being spent on this development. Chinese company Beijing Construction Engineering Company Ltd is the contractor responsible for the design and construction of this industrial park.
“Why couldn’t they spent one or two hundred thousand and see about these poor people instead of carrying out a reign of terror on them?” he asked.
“It is not that these people are in the middle of the eTecK development. They are part of a fenceline community.”
But eTecK said that portion of land is a crucial to the development of the estate.
In a paid media advertisement on Monday, eTeck sought to set the record straight, publishing a chronological order of records beginning June 18, when it was granted title to 109 acres at Phoenix Park. It was mandated by its line ministry to plan, design and construct a modern, state-of-the-art light industrial estate to support Government’s economic diversification efforts.
That project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2022, with 78 leasable land lots.
It said a survey assessment and topographical mapping exercise in March 2018 identified six structures along with crops on the southwestern side of the estate, an area critical for the construction of the estate’s utility corridor and roadway.
The company said it engaged five of the six occupants to ascertain their status and to provide relevant documentary evidence.
It said one of the six could not be found and the other five failed to provide such evidence.
Meetings with the fenceline residents and key stakeholders were held in January and February 2019, it said, at which eTecK presented findings of illegal occupation and discussion towards a resolution were held.
Individual assessments were made and th
