As part of the beautification and reorganizing of Bartica, the town council has decided to tackle illegal vending and congestion around the market and vendors arcade areas.
“As it is right now the market is functioning pretty okay and all of the stalls are occupied. The only challenge is tackling illegal vending,” Deputy Mayor Kamal Persaud told Stabroek News yesterday. She said the council was in the process of identifying a suitable area for vending as the issue of illegal vending is of “great concern.” She explained that the huge number of persons vending illegally in the area greatly affects the flow of traffic and sales to legitimate business owners both in the market and vendors arcade. “They [illegal vendors] don’t pay any rates, they don’t comply with GRA [Guyana Revenue Authority] and any of those things and in most cases they are just there operating and greatly contribute to the poor disposal garbage,” Persaud said, pointing out that in some cases persons would even live in the structures they have built over time.
“First they start with a little table, then a collapsible tent, then a wooden structure with a tarp around it and that eventually forms into a permanent thing and that’s one of the reasons I became involved and outspoken about the issue,” Persaud said, asserting that the
