Several persons yesterday morning staged a protest outside of the Crabwood Creek/Molsen Creek Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Corentyne, Berbice, office to press for the removal of the Chairman, Teerbhawandat Arjun, and Overseer Fizul Ally.
The protestors held placards in front of the NDC office after which they started to light tyres along the main access road in front of the building. However, the police arrived quickly on the scene and put out the fire and urged the protesters to desist from blocking the road, which they did.
One protestor, Razika Singh, of Crabwood Creek, said, “From what I can see is that this chairman has not been doing a great job for the Crabwood Creek people. He does not have the interest of the people at his heart. He is a dictator. He dictates for who he want, and whenever a problem goes to him he don’t try to find a solution….”
“We want a just and we want a humble and kind leader. We don’t want a dictator. We need someone who is there to serve everyone regardless of their faith, their possession in society, the connection of those in authority, we need someone like that,” she added.
Another protestor, Anil Singh, claimed, that the NDC officials are “victimizing the residents.” He added, “They have friends with benefits in this council and the council is uneducated so it makes uneducated decisions for the residents, so we need a change in this NDC. We need the Chairman and Overseer… if the government can remove them.”
According to him, there are several streets in the area which need to be repaired but they have been ignored.
Meanwhile, another protestor said, that his concern is that two brothers from Line Path are employed at the NDC while he lives in Crabwood Creek “and cannot get a job and two brother from Line Path working at the NDC.”
Arjun, however, told Stabroek News that the protesters are related to a resident who had an ongoing court dispute with the NDC.
According to Arjun, the resident started to build a structure which was expected to be a chicken pen at the back of his yard. However, after residents began to complain the overseer visited the resident and enquired about the structure. “He told the overseer that he didn’t do a plan because he know we wouldn’t pass it,” he said.
However, the sanitary officer then approached the resident and asked that he go through the proper process. However, after three notices were sent to the resident, the matter was then taken to court.
According to the Chairman, about three weeks now the court ruled against the resident and as a result he became upset.
In addition to this, Arjun, who has been the Chairman for 13 years, said in response to the complaints about the NDC not working, “…2015 to 2019 we had an APNU government in power and Crabwood Creek is a predominantly PPP place and they [government] didn’t help with development except two streets. We didn’t get any development and now we starting to do development work.”
Further, as it relates to the brothers from Line Path working at the NDC, Arjun confirmed that one is employed as the overseer for the NDC and another as a Community Infrastructure Improvement Project worker. He noted that chairmen do not play any role in the employment process for those persons.
