Dear Editor,

I would like to draw your attention to the serious situation here on all the reserves with regards to business places in East Mahaicony. Government implemented a system whereby we must register our businesses at the Deeds Registry in order to obtain a licence for a year’s business. But, as of late what is happening here in this village is that most of the business places have closed their doors to avoid overhead expenses and now go onto the Government Reserves, public dams and take out a huckster licence. They then occupy the reserves of the dams, re-open their normal business without the Regional Democratic Council or the District Council saying or objecting to these practices. To remove them, millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money must be spent on them by the Government.

Barber shops, restaurants, parlours etc, all are happy and comfortable with no licensing and tax problems to worry about and the government’s revenue loss continues but who cares now?

If the goods vehicle brings supplies for our shops there are no places that they can park to deliver, so they don’t come now as there is no place to park anymore; all the places are occupied by street vendors.

The Ministry of Health cries out about good health for the children of this land, have they ever examined what food is sold to children from these makeshift shops/restaurants. They are never interested, some of the food is cooked every seven days and heated over and over for the school week or until it is sold out. Many times you can see fine worms infesting some of the food, is this okay for children’s consumption?

There are no protections from the Government for the legal shop owners, who keep within the law and pay taxes etc. These roads are sometimes so narrow and yet you see these vendors occupy them with no regard for traffic etc. Are these things fair?

Yours faithfully,
M.L. Singh