Former Speaks on Caroni Land Distribution .

From : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hxz4bG9Xgk

Former sugar workers give PM deadline to respond

By LAUREL V WILLIAMS Saturday, December 19 2009

http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,112832.html 

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning has been given seven days to respond to a letter about concerns faced by former sugar workers of the now defunct Caroni (1975) Ltd.

This deadline was given Thursday night during a cottage meeting at the Esperanza Presbyterian Primary School, Dow Village California, by UNC Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.

In fact, Maharaj threatened that if Manning fails to respond within the stipulated time, legal action will follow.

The four-page letter, which was addressed to Prime Minister Manning and dated December 17, 2009, sought redress for the former sugar workers with regards to the terms and condition of the Voluntary Separation of Employment Packages (VSEP) agreement.

Maharaj, who is running for the post of Political leader in the upcoming UNC internal election come January 24, signed the letter under the capacity as president of the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Rights Association.

In the letter Maharaj reminded Manning of a High Court Action whereby Justice Lennox Deyalsingh declared the entitlement of former sugar workers to have residential and agricultural plots of land with all proper infrastructure.

Reading the letter to the small, but vibrant crowd Maharaj added that with regard to the leasehold interest for 199 years of the workers entitled lot of land, the government has requested that they pay a deposit of $3,000.

Ramesh to challenge state on $30,000 VSEP lot fees

Ariti Jankie South Bureau

Friday, December 18th 2009

ALL THE WAY: A supporter makes a contribution to Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj's campaign for the UNC Leadership, as he delivers a speech at meeting on Wednesday night in Tarouba. -Photo: DAVE PERSAD Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj intends filing legal action on behalf of former Caroni Ltd workers, so the $30,000 fee they paid for building lots given as part of their Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) will be repaid. Maharaj said the VSEP accepted by former Caroni workers gave priority access to two acres of agricultural lands and a residential lot. ’At no place in any of the documents was there any mention of sugar workers paying a price for the land,’ he said at a public meeting in Tarouba on Wednesday night. Maharaj took credit for forcing Government to give agricultural and residential lands to the ex-workers. His Trinidad and Tobago Civil Rights Association filed a lawsuit in 2007, complaining that Government seemed to have reneged on its promise to give the ex-workers priority access to the lands. In his judgment, Justice Lennox Deyalsingh ordered Government to deliver on its promise to distribute leases to the land by June 2008. On Wednesday night, Maharaj said Government was asking ex-workers to pay $30,000 or lose their right to the land. ’I am advising sugar workers to pay their monies without prejudice to their rights and I would file a public interest litigation on their behalf to get back the monies plus interest and also get a monetary compensation for the loss they have suffered,’ he said. So far, only 545 leases have been distributed for two-acre agricultural plots that carry a rental fee of $400 annually. In addition, 1,500 Letters of Offer were handed out at the Caroni Land Distribution Office, Brechin Castle, Couva, in which ex-workers were asked to pay the sum of $20,000 to $30,000 within 90 days.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/print?id=161571587

 

Ramesh Takes Plight of the Ex-Caroni Workers

http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news/general/2009/11/16/ramesh-takes-plight-ex-caroni-workers

Mon, 2009-11-16 00:08 — Black_Jacobin
Byline Author:
Radhica Sookraj

Article Date:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hundreds of former Caroni Ltd workers and cane farmers have teamed up with Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to fight for pension, land and European Union financial aid.

Hundreds of former Caroni Ltd workers and cane farmers have teamed up with Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to fight for pension, land and European Union financial aid.

Just after noon yesterday, Maharaj met with the workers at Brickfield Junction, Orange Valley and Apoo Village, Couva, to mobilise support for planned action scheduled for December 10. Maharaj said since the closure of Caroni in 2003, more than 9,000 sugar cane workers had been suffering enormous social and economic hardships.

He said the European Union had made $354 million available to cane farmers and former workers, but the Government has not filtered down any programme to alleviate the social upheaval. Maharaj on December 10, massive protests would be held to highlight the plight of the workers. He said workers would march from Couva to Port-of-Spain, following which litigation would be filed on behalf of the workers.

Ramesh Consults Former Caroni Workers

http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news/general/2009/11/15/ramesh-consults-former-caroni-workers


Sun, 2009-11-15 01:25 — Anonymous

Article Date: Monday, November 16, 2009

Former Attorney General and MP for Tabaquite Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj will be holding a series of special meetings with former workers and clients of Caroni (1975) Ltd today 2009

Former Attorney General and MP for Tabaquite Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj will be holding a series of special meetings with former workers and clients of Caroni (1975) Ltd today 2009 at the following venues:

• Loch Bar, Brickfield Village at 1 pm; 
• Bay Road Junction, Orange Valley at 2 pm, and 
• Ram Bolo’s residence, Orchid Drive, Apoo Avenue at 3pm.

The Issues to be discussed include: Government’s failure to distribute Caroni land to the former sugar workers; ADB/UTC Sweetener; tenancies on Caroni Lands, and broken VSEP promises. Mr Maharaj’s team departs the UNC Couva North Management Committee Office, Jerry Junction, Waterloo, promptly at 12.30 pm.

Appeal Court reserves judgment

By ONIKA JAMES Friday, July 17 2009

http://www.newsday.co.tt/crime_and_court/0,103919.html 

An Appeal court panel has reserved its judgment in the matter of the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Rights Association and the Cabinet.

Having heard submissions from the association’s attorney, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, and Reginald Armour SC, who is representing the Cabinet, the panel, which comprised of Chief Justice Ivor Archie, and Appeal Judges Peter Jamadar, and Nolan Bereaux, announced that they will rule on the matter by, or before the month of October. The matter stemmed from a 2007, judgment in which High Court Judge, Justice Lennox Deyalsingh declared that, the promise made by the Patrick Manning Government to give sugar workers leases for agricultural lands was enforceable in law. Deyalsingh ordered the Cabinet to grant the leases. The Government appealed the matter on the grounds that Deyalsingh had an apparent bias in the matter, in that prior to being a temporary judge in 2006, he wrote several articles in the newspapers, in which he criticised the Government.

In March 2007, an Appeal Court panel blanked a judicial review which sought to force Justice Deyalsingh to deal with an application to disqualify himself from the Caroni workers judicial review case which was filed in the Court of Appeal.

However, Senior Counsel Maharaj, responded yesterday and said, before Deyalsingh became a judge, he was entitled to criticise the Government and the law, and that the history of the judge or, his political association cannot be a ground of bias. Maharaj, further said, if that was so then, many judges in the Caribbean would not be able to function.

Deyalsingh was fearless

Caroni Lands Appeal

Deyalsingh was fearless—Ramesh

Francis Joseph

Published: 17 Jul 2009

Francis Joseph

Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj submitted yesterday that retired High Court judge, Lennox Deyalsingh, was independent and fearless. Addressing the Court of Appeal in the appeal brought by Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his Cabinet, Maharaj said nothing which was said or written by Deyalsingh could constitute apparent bias.

On Wednesday, Manning's attorney, Reginald Armour, SC, asked the Court of Appeal to quash the decision made by Deyalsingh and send it back for retrial before another judge. He claimed that there was the possibility of apparent bias in four articles and a letter written to the media by the former judge. The Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Ivor Archie, Justice Peter Jamadar and Justice Nolan Bereaux, reserved judgment to October. On December 7, 2007, Deyalsingh, presiding in the Port-of-Spain High Court, ordered the Government to grant leases to ex-Caroni (1975) Ltd workers for lands which were promised to them more than six years ago.

The judge set a deadline of June 30, 2008, for the two-acre agricultural plots to be leased to 7,900 displaced workers and ordered that "proper infrastructure, including access, drainage and irrigation facilities," be attached to each plot. Maharaj said there was no merit in the application brought by the Prime Minister. He said four of the articles were written by the judge when he was in retirement. He said those articles were critical of the Government during the period of time that the articles were written. "The contents of the articles, however, clearly showed that the criticisms made by the judge were not directed or related to any of the issues or matters which he had to determine in the Caroni case," Maharaj said. "It must be shown that the criticisms in question were made in respect of issues which the judge determined or which he had to determine."

He said judges were expected and trained to be able to judge on the facts and the law relevant to issues before them and to be aware of the possible influence of their personal views. "In Trinidad and Tobago, former politicians have been appointed to the bench…They were expected to set aside their political affiliations on appointment and were confidently expected to rule without partiality in cases involving the State," Maharaj said. In the present case, he said, Deyalsingh was reappointed to the Bench after the four articles were written. He said this was a clear inference that his articles were not a concern to the Judicial and Legal Service Commission. As to the letter which was published on July 17, 2006, Maharaj said this was written during extraordinary times. He said this was the time when an attempt was made to arrest then Chief Justice Sat Sharma.

"A fair-minded observer would have welcomed this fearless comment from a judge," Maharaj said. "There was no link between the contents of that letter and the Caroni matter before the court. "If the judge had criticised the Government for their brazen breaches in the Caroni matter, and then come and sit on the case, allegations could have been made."

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/07/17/deyalsingh-was-fearless-ramesh

 

Caroni ex-workers to get pension

http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news/general/2009/05/15/caroni-ex-workers-get-pension



Minister of Finance, Karen Tesheira, right, signs a pension agreement on behalf of her Ministry, watched by Caroni (1975) chairman, Jerry Hospedales, left, and attorney Dennis Gurley. PHOTO: KARLA RAM00

The Finance Ministry and Caroni 1975 Ltd yesterday signed legal documents to ensure the payment of pension benefits to over 9,000 ex-workers of Caroni (1975). The benefits were promised to daily-paid ex-workers six years ago, as part of their Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) and to certain monthly-paid workers. It was also part of the Consent Order issued by the Industrial Court in July 2003.

The Finance Ministry and Caroni 1975 Ltd yesterday signed legal documents to ensure the payment of pension benefits to over 9,000 ex-workers of Caroni (1975). The benefits were promised to daily-paid ex-workers six years ago, as part of their Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSEP) and to certain monthly-paid workers. It was also part of the Consent Order issued by the Industrial Court in July 2003.

The workers were given VSEP after the closure of the company in 2003, after 30 years in operation. But according to Caroni (1975) chairman Jerry Hospedales, the process of meeting the pension commitments was long and arduous and required substantial technical and administrative work. “There were many hurdles, in particular, the need to establish a credible pension-eligible database from the unreliable and fragmented records at Caroni and to codify those institutional pension practices which prevailed,” Hospedales said.

He pointed out that on June 14, 2007, Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) was selected as the annuity provider through a tendering process involving five other insurance companies. He said from June 1, trustee Republic Bank Limited - Trust and Asset Management Division, would begin to purchase immediate and deferred annuities for pension-eligible daily-paid workers, from insurer Colonial Life Insurance Company. However, he noted that all payments under the annuities would have an effect from July, 2008.

He said unverifiable claims would be placed in a reserve fund, which would be held by Republic Bank for seven years, during which any legitimate claims by potential beneficiaries would be honoured. He added that over the next two weeks, information on annuity purchases would be provided to beneficiaries. This new pension agreement means that a pension-eligible former employee of Caroni who qualifies for the Senior Citizens Grant could receive $2,800 monthly—Caroni pension of $650, NIS pension of $2,000 and Senior citizens grant of $150.

I’m not running a doubles factory

By Peter Balroop

Sunday 6th April, 2008

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-04-06/business1.html 

Uthara Rao, executive chairman of the Estate Management Business Development Company (EMBDC), estimates he will deliver 22,250 residential lots on Caroni (1975) Ltd State lands by September, next year.

The lots are 5,000 square feet each.

The man who says he has the Midas touch that enabled EMBDC to declare a profit of $15.2 million in 2007, up from the $13.4 million in 2006, promised that ex-Caroni workers would get 7,200 of these lots, priced at between $40,000 and $50,000.

The land—6,800 acres in all—is being developed: earth works, perimeter and topographical survey, installation of underground sewer and electricity facilities, then division into 5,000-square feet plots, Rao told the Sunday Guardian in an exclusive interview.

He also disclosed that 190 two-acre agricultural plots had been handed out to ex-Caroni workers, who had planted them and, in fact, already begun reaping crops.
The housing lots are being developed on 42 sites, 22 of which will be exclusively for ex-Caroni workers.

Rao emphasised there was no way the EMBDC could deliver the housing lots by June, as ordered in Justice Lennox Deyalsingh’s judgment, last December.
 
“I am not running a doubles factory,” declared Rao, a 63-year-old engineer with management training who has been working for the past 20 years in Trinidad.
The EMBDC started work on the ambitious project three-and-a-half years ago, but it was only three to four months in each year, during the dry season, that development work could proceed full speed ahead.
 
“Justice Deyalsingh should understand that,” Rao said, recalling the judgment had been appealed by the State, and the first hearing was scheduled some time next month.

Deserve lots

He said everything took time, and he would certainly deliver just as he had done on almost every project he handled during his career.

The Government, too, he stressed, was hand in hand with him working to deliver the residential lots as well as the 7,600 two-acre agricultural plots that were promised to the ex-Caroni workers.
 
“We at the EMBDC have a well-structured plan, and the political drive is there.”
Rao said he believed the ex-workers deserved the residential lots they were promised as part of their VSEP package.

He added the type of development being done, in terms of the residential and agricultural plots, was unique to T&T, and when completed would, indeed, succeed in rocketing T&T into the realm of First-World status.

In terms of the residential lots, the original mandate from the State was to develop 22 sites for the 7,200 ex-Caroni workers who had applied, but the Government had ordered the EMBDC to expand to 42 sites, with the additional 15,050 residential lots going to members of the public who applied.

The lots would cost around $110,000 to develop, but the State would subsidise the purchase price for new owners.

Rao said the State was deciding what price the 15,050 lots, which would be on offer to the public, would be sold at. His input in that was minimal, he admitted.

In terms of the 7,600 agricultural lots being developed on 20,000 of Caroni’s 77,000 acres, Rao estimated that 50 per cent of the work was completed.

This involved laying of access roads, division into lots and establishment of farmers’ crossings; in essence, right of passageway through property being farmed.

Rao said 190 of the ex-Caroni workers had begun planting and reaping short-term crops in the Jerningham and Waterloo areas.

He expected by the end of 2008 all agricultural plots would be developed and handed over to the lessors.

The EMBDC’s strategic business unit also has earmarked 2,800 acres for development as residential lots to be sold to “Joe Public” with each acre being divided into 1,800 lots.
Plots of 150, 80 and 50 acres were also being developed by the EMBDC as “community” lots, and in all 30,000 acres of Caroni land would eventually be devoted to agricultural and residential plots.

False charges

Accusations of sexual harassment and bribery have stalked Rao during recent times, but he sees himself as a man with the Midas touch who has covered himself in glory in the 20 years he has worked in T&T.
 
A native of the Indian state of Hyderabad, who has been executive chairman of EMBDC for the past four years, Rao, charged with managing the fortunes of the shutdown Caroni (1975) Ltd, says the easiest thing to do to pull down a successful boss is to accuse him of either sexual harassment or corruption in terms of bribery.
Even if the charges are false, the mud flung tends to stick, he observes ruefully, shaking his head of thinning hair in his well-ordered Valpark office a week ago.
Rao said he came here in 1989 when ISPAT was losing $1 million a day, and in one year the company was turned around.
 
Since then, he worked with Carlisle Tyres, Caridoc, and PriceWaterhouse before taking up the EMBDC post.
 
He said it was, indeed, ironic that descendants of Indians started Caroni (1975) Ltd and he had to come from India to take the remnants of the company and turn it around to make a profit.
He says he works beyond the call of duty: on the job from 6.30 am up to 7.30 pm most days.
Rao said he took the accusations in stride.
“I will keep my chin up and go forward. I am committed to delivery.”

Caroni lands surveyor says Lots won’t meet deadline

By Peter Balroop

Sunday 23rd March, 2008  

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-03-23/news11.html 

 

Government will be unable to meet the June 2008 deadline for delivery of residential lots to former sugar workers, says land surveyor Ganeshdath Ramcharitar.

And he’s seeking an urgent meeting with UNC Alliance chief whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to inform him of this.

Ramcharitar said he wants to tell the head of the T&T Civil Rights Association that while most of the lots had been surveyed, the Estate Management Business Development Corporation (EMBDC) was way behind with installation of sewer and electricity facilities.

These had to be in place for the local health authorities to give permission for the residential leases to be handed over, Ramcharitar said last week.

In his expert view, if underground sewer and electricity facilities were installed after the thousands of residential lots had been surveyed at 5,000 feet each, the boundaries surveyors had fixed could be mixed up.

Maharaj had, in December last year, won a case on behalf of the ex-Caroni workers against the State, getting Justice Lennox Deyalsingh to rule that the Government must give the former workers their residential lot leases by June this year.

Ramcharitar recalled that in the wake of the Deyalsingh judgement concerning the Caroni residential leases, Jerry Hospedales, chairman of the Government’s Divestment Secretariat had called all the surveyors involved to a meeting in December 2007 at the Eric Williams Financial Complex to find out how the lotification exercise was proceeding.

Ramcharitar said Hospedales was shocked, based on the information he received from the five surveyors, including Ramcharitar, that the operation was lagging behind.

It was in that context, he disclosed last week, that he was seeking an audience with Maharaj.

Ramcharitar shot into the media spotlight on March 14, when a letter from him to former minister in the Ministry of Finance Conrad Enill was delivered to Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira in Parliament. The letter claimed that an EMBDC executive had asked him for a Can $10,000 gift last year.

 Ramcharitar, 57, told the Sunday Guardian that he sought an appointment with Nunez-Tesheira last week Wednesday on the matter.

Nunez-Tesheira could not be reached for comment yesterday and Information Minister Neil Parsanlal, who said he would contact her and see if she would arrange a meetings with Ramcharitar, had not called back up to late yesterday.

‘I always assisted in solving problems’

A surveyor with 27 years experience, the last 15 in private practice, Ramcharitar said he first worked for the EMBDC in 2004 and the company and its executives had always expressed satisfaction with his work, possibly because he was always accessible to assist in solving problems.

Ramcharitar said lotification work was completed on seven sites at Balmain, Beaucaro, Orange Field, Factory Road, Sonny Ladoo Road, Waterloo and Esperanza.

In all, Ramcharitar handed over 1,125 lots at 5,000 square feet each, which he was contracted by the EMBDC to survey at $690 (Vat inclusive) each.

Recently, Ramcharitar said he has been experiencing no end of problems to collect further payments for invoices submitted.

Ramcharitar indicated he had been contracted to survey a total of 22 sites of varying perimeters, but only 15 had been handed over to him.

 Instead, another firm was given the job at the other sites, he claimed.

Last week, Ramcharitar said he was no millionaire by any stretch of the imagination.

Ramcharitar said in the interest of completing the survey and lotification work speedily, he sub-contracted work to a team of seven surveyors, paying them $500 for each lot they marked off, so he earned just $190 for himself, per lot.