Vendors who operated a daily market at the Rosignol Railway embankment were forcibly removed during a demolition exercise that started around 6:30 am on Saturday after ignoring notices to relocate to a new $60M structure nearby.
Several stalls were knocked down with a backhoe belonging to the Rosignol/ Zeelust Neighbour-hood Democratic Council (NDC) in the presence of the police; Regional Executive Officer (REO), Floyd France; Regional Vice Chairman (RVC) Karran P. Deokarran and Regional Development Officer (RDO), Govind Singh.
A few vendors who occupied the market daily also looked on. The other vendors had gone to the new market to ply their weekly trade as this was taking place.
Piles of garbage were scattered in the area and the officials remarked that “food was being sold in this unhygienic condition.” The vendors promptly declared that they were not the only ones who dumped but businesspersons from other areas did the same.
A vegetables vendor, Nicola Thomas who was selling at the market for over 25 years told Stabroek News (SN) that “they [regional officials] never give we notice to move and they come and break… they should have ensured that we get stalls first…”
The woman said that sometime back she [and other vendors] had tried to sell at the new market on a daily basis. They spent about five months “but we didn’t do business there. We greens keep spoiling and we had to throw them away. We come back here so we could earn a dollar.”
Thomas, a single mother of seven along with two other vendors: Jameron Sadiq who was selling in the old market for over 30 years and Dhannarine Kellawan said they had already invested in produce and were concerned that it would spoil if they did not get a place to sell.
would also have to be removed. “]![Police officers on standby. These stalls [opposite the market] would also have to be removed.](https://s1.stabroeknews.com/images/2008/08/20080811police.jpg "20080811police")
Together with other regional officials and the overseer of the NDC, Deokarran proposed on the spot that the vendors who had been left without stalls should be given front spots in the new market.
The RVC told SN that the vendors resisted at first but “we came to do our work and we did it. No one would be allowed to sell by the roadside anymore.”
He said too that Rosignol has been earmarked for township status and that there are plans to upgrade the road and the drains by next year.
Kellawan said he had already started to sell when the demolition crew came. He said the vice-chairman told him to remove from the front and go to the back and continue selling.
The man said he was in the process of doing so when another official arrived with the police and instructed the crew to “break everything.”
He said he was still on top of his stall trying to dismantle it when the backhoe operator started to knock it down and “I had to jump off to save me life…”
In an invited comment, the REO told this newspaper that “it is illegal to occupy the government reserve and the demolition had to be done.” He said provisions would be made for the vendors to have stalls at the new market.
However the vendors are contending that the NDC was collecting rent for the stalls. They said after they relocated from the new market to their old spots the NDC continued to collect rent but stopped after a short while.
A few vendors said that they continued selling “from Sunday to Sunday” at the old market because they did not have stalls at the other location.
To this the official said the vendors were asked to visit the NDC and that they would be provided with stalls “but they never turned up.”
Singh, the RDO told SN that the vendors were not informed about the exercise because of an existing court order. He said too that the other stalls along the roadway on the opposite side of the old market would also be demolished.
Singh pointed out, “We would be hosting Carifesta at Blairmont in two weeks time. A lot of tourist would be visiting the area and we cannot have an environment looking like this.”
Further he said, “We have a big multi-purpose market but the vendors only utilize that market on Saturdays.
France who said that the demolition is “unfortunate,” complimented the police for maintaining peace and hoped that it remains that way.
He is also hopeful that the persons do not return to vending there.
While this newspaper was there workers were removing the debris and France said they would return today to clear the other garbage and the drains.
