The Belladrum Community Centre building which Public Service Minister Sonia Parag was locked out of on Tuesday, was constructed from government funds following the March 2016 local government elections, according to Emile Wilson, Chairman of the Profit/Rising Sun NDC.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday via telephone, Wilson explained that the building was constructed at the request of residents following an outreach.
He stated that the area where the building is now located once housed a village market which was defunct for years. Being in no state to be renovated, the building was constructed under the supervision of the Community Development Council (CDC).
The CDC is the custodian of the building and though as Chairman he holds an ex-officio seat, he explained they do not control the operations of the building.
The building since its existence has been used for feeding programmes, a STEM club, after-school classes and once had an ICT facility and library.
The multi-purpose building currently houses an office for the community piggery, a library, and a craft area to assist the youths in the community.
However, Wilson explained that with little maintenance done, over time it deteriorated. It is believed it was in the hope of having the building functional, that the resident made the request to President Irfaan Ali for assistance. Parag was visiting in relation to this request.
Parag during the visit on Tuesday said she was locked out of the building by Opposition Member of Parliament, Vinceroy Jordan, and the Chair of the Community Development Council (CDC), Julian Davids.
Parag, in yesterday’s Stabroek News said that during the presidential outreach in the community, a resident requested that government look at the community centre to determine whether it was feasible to install a library, ICT hub, or host training programmes for the youths there. She added that a promise was made to have the area checked out and to determine a way forward.
The Minister said that she visited the community last week Wednesday and that the gate to the community centre was locked. There were a number of residents there to meet with the Minister.
Wilson noted that after the CDC confirmed that the Minister was returning to visit the facility on Tuesday, the CDC invited Jordan to meet with them and it was at that meeting they took the decision to “stand their ground.”
The NDC chairman related that the CDC members took the stance following concerns that the PPP/C-led government was planning to utilise the building for their own purpose. He also stated that residents were annoyed at claims that the PPP/C wanted to place their supporter in an office to be housed in the building.
Jordan in a video posted on the APNU+AFC Facebook page on Wednesday said, “The residents in that community worked together with their foreign and governmental partners at that time, during the APNU+AFC government to ensure that the community had a building that could have served the needs of all the residents. I said that to say that the building is a multi-purpose community building.
“…the minister came to take the building that was built by the residents and the building that served in the community to hand it over to her PPP friends and cronies. One of the councillors on the Profit/Rising Sun NDC, the Minister wants to have him have an office in that building. Secondly, the minister wants a PPP operative to house his PPP business and office in that building. So I said to the minister, very clearly, if you’re coming here to do development for the residents, you must have a clear direction and a clear agenda for the residents.”
However, Parag on Wednesday rebuffed Jordan’s statement. She responded to the allegation by saying “I have no intentions whatsoever setting up any party office. I don’t even know where that came from.”
“The residents he’s talking about were objecting to him because he doesn’t want development and he also said that I had another meeting in the community. I didn’t have another meeting there. Yesterday, my sole purpose for coming up here is what I went up to do there at Belladrum, to go and see the building and talk to youths,” the minister told Stabroek News.
