Vishnu Panday, who was appointed by GuySuCo as Point Person/General Manager of the Skeldon Estate has since tendered his resignation, a source confirmed last evening to Stabroek News.
According to information gathered, Panday offered his resignation several weeks ago. Efforts by Stabroek News to contact Panday last evening for comment proved futile.
The resignation may signal early problems in the PPP/C government’s plans to revive the Skeldon factory which analysts have said is not feasible.
When Stabroek News contacted the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha yesterday on whether Panday had resigned he said “Not to my knowledge”.
The PPP/C entered office in August on a manifesto plan to reopen the estates – including Skeldon – that were shuttered by the APNU+AFC government. Built by the Chinese company CNTIC, the Skeldon Factory had been riddled with problems.
In September, Mustapha had visited the Skeldon Estate and Rose Hall Estate, where he told Stabroek News, that they had identified two former estate managers, one from each location, who were tasked with the creation of two separate plans of action for the estates within a specified time frame. He said that Panday, a former manager, along with a small team, had been appointed to create an action plan for the Skeldon Estate, while former manager Aaron Dukhia and a team were appointed to create the action plan for Rose Hall Estate.
At the Skeldon Estate the minister had said, “He has a lot of knowledge about this location so he can come up with an immediate plan of action so that we can implement it and bring back this project to a working condition.”
The minister had also noted that the persons appointed on the ground would not only have to look at the factory but also do an analysis of the fields and come up with the best plan to get the estate back on its feet.
In early December it was reported in sections of the media that Panday had said that 232 persons were hired so far at the Skeldon Estate and a total of 814 persons were registered in addition to those employed.
He had noted, that those employed were carrying out preparatory works for the full reopening of the estate.
