AFFECTED farmers from the Belle Vue Cane Farmers Marketing Co-op Society (BCFMCS), West Bank Demerara are disappointed that they were not invited to a meeting held two weeks ago at the Department of Labour, where a matter affecting them was resolved.
Both sides of the feud were invited to the meeting held on April 5, and which was attended by Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott, Chief Co-op Officer, Perlina Gifth and a representative from the Prime Minister’s Office.

However, only members of one side of the dispute turned up. Those included BCFMCS Chairman, Deodat Deokinandan, the secretary, Antonette Manickchand; the treasurer, Munesh Paul and other committee members. Also in attendance was the NICIL Special Purpose Unit Officer in charge of Wales Estate, Charles Brown.

Deokinandan, popularly known as “Beardman” had bought several acres of land from the BCFMCS since 2009; however, the sale has been a matter of controversy.

Some 31 farmers are disputing his claim to the land, as well as rights to being a part of the Co-op, since he has never been a resident of the Belle Vue Community. The land is owned by GuySuCo but leased to the Co-op Society originally to do cane farming to supply the Wales Estate.

However, after the Wales Estate closed in December 2016, the affected farmers who are disputing the validity of the current BCFMCS, applied and got permission to plant other crops in 2017. Disagreement between the two sides climaxed earlier this year when Deokinandan destroyed several crops at the Belle Vue farm lands where the affected farmers had begun to plant.

Deokinandan is maintaining that the farmers were trespassing and has since brought charges against 11 of the farmers; the matter is pending at the Wales Magistrate’s Court. The matter was last heard on April 4 and will continue today.
Six of the 11 farmers are said to have since signed statements that they no longer want to follow the issue or fight to get back their lands.

As the meeting got underway, questions were raised as to why not a single member from the other side of the dispute was present and whether they were ever invited. In was discovered that one invitation was sent out to an affected farmer.
The Prime Minister Representative noted that a final resolution could not be had without the other side being present. A phone call was then made to a man claiming to be Satesh Rajpat, one of the affected farmers, who said the affected farmers no longer wish to push the issue.

However, Sapna Muniram, another of the affected farmers, said that this is far from the truth. She says that none of the affected farmers, aside from the six farmers who no longer want to pursue the issue, was invited to the meeting. Rajpat, she said, is one of the farmers who already signed that he no longer wanted to fight the matter. Muniram said she only learnt of the meeting the evening before it was held, through one of the Committee members who was invited to the meeting by the Co-op secretary.
However, she said when she inquired if the affected farmers were invited to the meeting, she was told that they were not. “Somebody called me and asked me why we were not there and I explained to the person that we weren’t invited. I know about the meeting but we were not invited. How can we barge in a meeting when we’re not invited? It’s a matter of principle” Muniram said.

“I was the one who help arrange the meeting, but we weren’t invited. The invitation came to the secretary [Manichand], and she came and delivered the message to their committee members, not the non-farmers; they call us the non-farmers. Thursday night a message came to one of Deokinandan committee member, so I said are we invited, so he said: ‘No, they didn’t say anything about you guys’. But when I call on Friday, it was too late, and I said we are not there so I don’t know what will happen. But when the committee member came home now he tell me that the matter is closed, but I said the matter cannot close when we are not there,” Muniram explained.

Muniram said the affected farmers discussed the issue on Friday afternoon and now plan to once again approach the Prime Minister to establish that they are still interested in their farm lands. “We feel lost, so Monday we’re going to the PM’s office to find out what can be done. Four of us will go,” she noted.

“We’re not intending to fight Mr. Deokinandan on any matter; we just wanted the government to get a piece of land to plant. We don’t want to fight, we want to solve this.”

Caption: (saved as: Belle Vue): The head table at the Department of Labour meeting, (from left) Chief Co-op Officer, Perlina Gifth; Labour Adviser, Francis Carryl and Minister of Labour, Keith Scott (Adrian Narine photo)