“What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” – Sir Walter Scott
Lands Commissioner, Mario Rodriguez, told Amandala tonight that businessman Jitendra Chawla (also known as Jack Charles), owner of X-Tra House in Belize City, was served this evening with a written stop order, declaring that he should not proceed with any further development at Krooman Lagoon, on the 9 acres for which he had paid Government roughly $60,000 in June.
When Amandala visited the premises at Mile 2 on the Western Highway this morning to speak with Chawla, we were told that he was not available, but we observed that works on a controversial factory development within the Krooman Lagoon Reserve (established in 2007) were going full steam ahead.
Roughly 20 Hispanic workers were toiling in their rubber boots under the hot sun; some of them were capping piles, driven as much as 40 feet into the ground, for a large building right behind Chawla’s existing warehouse, and a crane and trucks were observed onsite. (Chawla had contracted M&M Engineering to construct his building.)
The question we asked is, if Cabinet has decided against issuing him title for the 9 acres, as reported on Tuesday, why is the development proceeding? The answer we got is that Chawla is claiming that the title for the land he is developing was given to him by the former People’s United Party (PUP) administration—and he owns it.
After Amandala visited the Krooman site this morning and found that the works on the chips factory were still in progress, we contacted Mrs. Beverly Castillo, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Natural Resources, for an explanation.
Chawla had paid the Government in June, said Castillo, $5,000 an acre plus a 30% administrative fee – a total of roughly $60,000 for the 9 acres. Once someone pays for land, Castillo noted, it is assumed that he would get the title.
(Amandala understands that Chawla has a parcel inside the Krooman Reserve, for which he is reported to have gotten title under the former People’s United Party administration, and that he is being allowed to keep and develop that portion.)
On Thursday morning, Castillo told our newspaper that Chawla had so far only been issued a “verbal stop order”—that was last Wednesday, in what she had described as “amicable” discussions with the Lands Commissioner. Chawla, she said, had agreed that he would stop filling on new parcels.
Both Rodriguez and Castillo told Amandala that the lands officer in charge of Belize City visited the premises today and indeed found that construction works are ongoing.
Even though the dispute in the media has been over this major development in the reserve, Chawla has indicated to the Lands Department in conversations today, that the land is his private property for which he had gotten written title under the PUP—not the ones disapproved this week by Cabinet.
That’s an interesting claim, because for the past two weeks, the public controversy has centered on the factory construction taking place inside the reserve – lands for which Chawla had allegedly paid the United Democratic Party administration but for which he was still awaiting a formal title.
Lands Commissioner Rodriguez told our newspaper that there has been a “distortion,” and the development is not on the 9 acres that Chawla was in the process of purchasing from the Government.
So far Chawla has declined interviews with the media. When we put the question pointedly to him this evening, asking him, for the record, which parcel he was building upon, his only reply was: “That is a tricky one.”
Chawla promised that he will tell the full story to the media next week Monday.
Collet area representative and Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, told Amandala this evening that the question had also come up in Cabinet on Tuesday, over whether the development – which he understood to be for a potato chip factory – sits on the parcels that were being sold to Chawla by the UDP administration.
According to Rodriguez, the information that the factory is being built on Chawla’s old title land comes from his Belize City lands officer, but he also indicated that Chawla had filled only 40 feet into the new lands for which he had paid the UDP administration.
“We will have to determine the gray area,” said Rodriguez, claiming that there was minimal encroachment, that is, “less than an acre.”
When we ran that by a prominent member of the Opposition today, he chuckled, pointing out that all the while the hoopla had been over the factory being built in the reserve even though the title for that portion of land had not yet been approved by the Government—so how could it have been issued by the PUP? A government technician we spoke with indicated that this was also his understanding—that the building was on the disputed property that had not yet been approved. Two other journalists who have been covering the story insist that they have been under the same impression.
We asked Rodriguez if and when a verification exercise would be undertaken to confirm the facts on the ground. (He had said that because the area has already been filled, the survey pegs have been submerged.)
Rodriguez agreed that a verification exercise would be a good idea, indicating that this would, indeed, need to be done to determine what area Chawla had filled on the new parcels, because that would help Government to determine what it should refund to him.
Incidentally, Chawla reportedly agreed today to a sit down with officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources to work out how much Government should compensate him, after Cabinet decided on Tuesday not to give him title for the other two parcels inside the reserve.
“Any assurances given by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to Mr. Chawla was done in ignorance of the details of the Southside Poverty Alleviation Project,” said the release. “The project recommended the Krooman Lagoon area be reserved and used as a drainage route for all the proposed drainage canals under the Project.”
Castillo conceded that the Lands Department took Chawla’s 60 grand and gave him the impression that he would get the title. Castillo said that there was no rush to get the Chawla properties approved. He had applied in late December 2008/early January 2009 and paid in June.
CEO Castillo said that staff of the Hydrology Department, the Forestry Department and the Department of the Environment did a rapid assessment – and not an Environmental Impact Assessment – on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week, and the report was tabled at Cabinet on Tuesday. The thrust of the report, she said, was that the area—which she said had already been partially developed—is of major ecological and hydrological importance, and important to the drainage of Belize City’s Southside.
Not only has it been compromised by Chawla’s development, but also by the Arnoldo “Pappy” Peña development and others, including residents in the area – some of them squatters who dump their faeces in the lagoon, Faber elaborated.
He told our newspaper that he as area representative was not involved while the Chawla development was being discussed. Faber told us that he had been informed that between 1,500 and 2,000 loads of fill had been dumped on 4 to 5 acres, at an estimated cost of $300,000 to $500,000.
He went on to note that although Pappy Peña had gotten his parcel in Krooman under the last administration, Government had stopped him from filling – indicating that the government has a policy of stopping developments in Krooman.
After the Krooman controversy broke over the development, Cabinet agreed on Tuesday that it would not transfer the public reserve lands to Chawla, and would instead compensate him for his investment. That includes the purchase price and the cost of the fill, Castillo said.
Government’s contention is that Chawla is not without blame, in that he had proceeded with the development without having gotten the requisite approval from the Government for developing the area.
The area representative told our newspaper that he was the one who had discovered that piles were being driven into the ground and when he checked with the Belize City Council, he had learned that CitCo had not yet approved the building plans. Faber said that CitCo had put the brakes on the building project but days later had decided to give them the green light.
So, we raised the question of why Government would want to give Jack Charles anything other than a refund of the purchase price if, as GOB claims, he had proceeded without their approval.
The explanation Faber offered was that Government wants to settle the matter amicably and avoid what he said could be a costly court battle.
Amandala is reliably informed that the Cabinet decision to stop the project and compensate Chawla is contrary to the hydrological technical advice, which indicated that because the damage had already been done that the development should continue but that proper drainage structures should be put in place. The area is only effective when there is excessive storm runoff, as in the major floods of 2008, our source said.
“The integrity of the lagoon has already been compromised”, said Faber, adding that in his view, pulling out the fill won’t make any sense and remedial works would be undertaken instead.
Faber explained that under the Southside Poverty Alleviation Project, being implemented by the Ministry of Works, a network of canals is to be built.
Rodriguez commented that the majority of the reserve had been issued to “first Belizeans” under the last administration, and he is also concerned that there are squatters living inside the reserve.
That begs the question as to whether Government would reacquire undeveloped properties from existing titleholders or eventually de-reserve the area. According to the Lands Commissioner, the law requires Government to pay the market value when it reacquires properties, which would be a big contrast to the “heavily subsidized price” for which it sometimes sells – as low as $50 an acre under the last administration, said Rodriguez.
Tuesday’s Cabinet release said, “…every effort will now be made to preserve the land for the environmentally sensitive use by the people of the Collet constituency.”