Kitty and Queenstown residents continue to seek respect for their right to relative peace and quiet during national celebrations

Dear Editor,

May I please add my two cents worth to the current discussion over noise nuisance in Georgetown and the need for respect for citizens’ rights.

In the imbroglio over the noise nuisance created by a Kitty bar, Mr Tony Vieira writes that by “accommodating these roadside customers you [the bar owner] are condoning their conduct and behaviour and that makes the establishment complicit and responsible.” (SN Letters, May 15, 2019)

The vendors along Irving Street, Queenstown, who will be accommodated by the Mayor and City Council on Independence Day for the street parade will be violating all the laws that govern the legal limits of noise allowed within the city. This repeat offence by the M&CC is allowed by the Guyana Police Force even as the Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan initiated a countrywide campaign against noise nuisances and noise pollution.

His Worship the Mayor, Pandit Ubraj Narine, has publicly pleaded for respect for himself and his office in his own ongoing imbroglio with his officers.

He knows then how we the residents of Kitty and Queenstown feel when we ask for exactly such respect for our right to reside in relative peace and quiet no matter the need for national celebrations.

If such celebrations can only be done within an environment of illegal and ear-splitting noise then the respectful and lawful move for the authorities to make would be to move the parade to the commercial centre of the city and away from any residential borough.

It is a matter of doing unto others as you would have done unto yourself.

Yours faithfully,

Ryhaan Shah