Fight for survival
Father and son in legal battle over eviction notice
FATHER and son Mahen and
Ronil Prasad had no idea their $100,000 a year commercial farming business would come to end in 2017.
In fact, they even don’t know now whether they will be allowed to stay on the 7 ½ acre piece of land at Waidalice in Tailevu which has been their home and livelihood for 60 years.
For 61-year-old Mahen Prasad, his greatest fear is that his land could be taken from him altogether, and he will be asked to dismantle his house where he lives with his wife Shakuntla
Kumari.
He grew up in that house.
Just a stone’s throw, his 36-year-old son Ronil Prasad lives with his young family.
They also face the same predicament of being asked to dismantle their house and vacate the land.
“I joined my father in 2003 and we did a lot of investment on the farm and when the farming was booming until 2017 when we started receiving feedback from the mataqali that they wanted the land back,” said Ronil Prasad.
With his father taking a back seat because of illness, Mr Prasad became a large-scale commercial farmer.
“I was a commercial farmer planting baigan and cassava. I was selling in the local markets and then Bula Island Foods from Nadi starting exporting my produce to Australia. I was hitting $100,000 annual as a commercial farmer,’ he said.
In 2013, Government gave him $5000 for drainage works around his farm and in 2015 another $41,000 was made available for the construction of a road around the farm area. Mr Prasad also received $1000 from the Prime Minister’s office to assist him in his farming venture.
All was going well, when he received a letter from the mataqali in 2017. “I have received a notice from the mataqali who have asked me to leave and stop all farming. Where will we go from here? We don’t have any other land,” said Mr Prasad.
He has been told since the property is just beside the Kings highway — it will be used for commercial purposes.
Mr Prasad has been running around since then to find a solution, but nobody has offered him a solution in black and white.
“I have made a lot of requests to the A-G’s office and the PM’s office and even to the iTLTB office. “
For Mr Prasad and his father, the 7 ½ acre piece of land isn’t just a money making avenue, but it’s the backbone of their upbringing.
And that’s why they have decided to take a legal step as a last resort. On December 9th their lawyers wrote to the iTLTB demanding that a new lease be granted to Mahen and Ronil Prasad.
“Our client and his family have made substantial investment towards the land,” said the letter to iTLTB.
Until the determination of the case and a decision from the iTLTB, Mr Prasad and his family, who once were planting $100,000 worth of produce will continue to buy their weekly vegetables from the Nausori market.
Questions emailed to the iTLTB chief executive office on Tuesday last week remained unanswered when this edition went to press.