Dear Editor,
Despite my letter last year that had prompted the Minister of Local Gov’t to attempt to demolish stalls on the roadside at the Anna Regina Market in Essequibo Coast, those stalls remain and more are being constructed. Stall holders have refused to take up stalls allotted to them in the Cotton Field market.
Vendors who have occupied their stalls in the market are crying foul, due to the unfair competition created by the roadside vending and quite rightly so, moreover, the Anna Regina Old Market Road and the parallel Regional Office Road is looking like a shanty town since the drainage canal betwixt is lined on both sides with stalls that protrude over the drainage canal. Presently the canal is clogged with weeds. It cannot be cleared by excavators because of the stalls that lined both sides. No one will attempt to clean it manually because of the stink smell resulting from the waste that the vendors secretly dispose of in the stagnant water beneath the weeds. The place is stinking.
One of the aggrieved vendor selling inside the market told me that he had enquired from one of the Town Councilors about what they (the Town Council) are doing to stop the rogue vending on the roadside. The councilor had responded that the Minister of Local Gov’t had taken over the Town Council and as a result the Mayor and Council cannot do anything. I am inclined to think that the councilor was just trying to obfuscate their responsibility in this volatile situation. I would not want to believe that a Minister of Local Gov’t would, at any time, attempt to take over a town council – these people were democratically elected, the Minister wasn’t. Logically, the Councillors right of tenure is more valid than the minister.
Sincerely,
Rudolph Singh
