Dear Editor,
The Cinderella County (Essequibo) continues to be a place rarely visited by Gov’t ministers, this is construed as a sign of neglect by the residents and in this void local public officials continue to function in corrupt ways. A few months ago local Gov’t minister, Dharamlall held a meeting with the Anna Regina Town Council and stall holders of the Anna Regina Market. At that meeting it was decided that all and sundry would desist from vending on the roadway in the vicinity of the old Anna Regina market and stall holders will take up their stalls in Cottonfield New Market where the Gov’t had spent millions of dollars to accommodate them. To this date, no one complied. On Friday vendors continue to block the roadways, creating chaos for commuters. Shoppers would always go where the vendors are! Unless every vendor is removed from the roadway cries of favouritism will prevail. I wonder how well thought out was the Gov’t’s plan to build the New Market half a mile away from the old Market for essentially the same reason (stop the chaos created by vending on the roadway) and the Town Council seems powerless to attain this objective. The result is that stalls in the new market are languishing for want of occupants, while Friday’s continue to be mayhem on the road.
Adding insult to injury – it is rumored that some councilors had instructed their favorite vendors not to move. Even Mayor Prabolall seems complicit, not having made any attempt to execute the resolu-tion made by the council and vendors three months ago (stop vending on the roadways). There seems to be little the minister can do, the mayor has jurisdiction in his township. Two weeks ago a resident from Somerset on the coast told me that he was served a notice by the chairman of the Charity/Urasara NDC to remove his rice farming implement from the parapet in front his house while his neighbor is allowed to occupy his parapet. This resi-dent contention is that what goes for one should go for all and quite rightly so. A while ago a rice farmer told me that after the PPP got back into office the regional administration parked the bulldozers that the APNU Gov’t were using to fix the dams for farmers to harvest their crop and give out contracts to repair the dams. Someone from Affiance was given the contract to do the dam in Bounty Hall where this farmer has his rice field. This farmer had to use his tractor to repair the dam to ensure that his crop could be harvested on time. His contention – he did the work while someone else collected pay, compliments of the PPP big wigs at the regional office. Space does not permit me more examples. These actions by the Regional officials are causing the people to lose faith in the Gov’t.
Sincerely
Rudolph Singh
