Latest update November 23rd, 2024 1:00 AM
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Ramotar, Sooba to be blamed for state of G/town- Mayor
As hundreds of Guyanese flocked Parliament buildings to witness President David Arthur Granger take a
Georgetown Mayor, Hamilton Greene
public oath to begin his first term in office. Georgetown Mayor, Hamilton Green, was also part of the celebrations and is positive that the new Government will bring improvements to Georgetown.
The Mayor contended that the current degraded state of Georgetown’s Municipality is to be blamed on former President, Donald Ramotar, Acting Town Clerk, Carol Soba and the former Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker.
Mayor Green now says that he and senior staff have scheduled a meeting for Monday, to discuss the state of the Georgetown municipality.
It was only in March that a section of the Stabroek Market wharf collapsed smashing a stall. No one was injured. According to stallholders the roof had been in a dilapidated state for some years.
A recent visit revealed that no repairs have been carried out on the wharf since the roof collapsed. It was also noticed that another part of the roof is on the verge of collapsing. This situation, Mayor Green said, is quite alarming as these collapsing roofs pose a threat to the wellbeing of persons traversing and conducting business in that section of the market.
On October 30, 2014, a meeting organized by members of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to address issues affecting vendors occupying sections of the badly dilapidated Stabroek Market Wharf, was cancelled by Town Clerk (Ag), Carol Sooba.
The collapsing roof at the market.
However, the acting Town Clerk in a recent interview said that vendors in that section of the market were warned to remove from the area. She said that vendors were served with written warnings to remove for their own safety from the deteriorating section of the market.
However, the warnings that were sent by the Administration of the City Constabulary were ignored, she said. She added that proposals were made to relocate the vendors to other stalls, but these were not being utilized.
“Some of the vendors are stubborn, and are not concerned about their own safety, so they chose to remain there,” Sooba said.
Contrary, to Sooba’s claims, the Mayor had said that resources are not available to repair the dilapidated wharf. Further, the Mayor stressed that decisions made by the Mayor and Council are being challenged by the Acting Town Clerk.
The alleged poor management by the Town Clerk was said to be the “road block” to the rehabilitation.
Several stallholders at the Stabroek Bazaar had recently complained about the market wharf which is now home to many drug addicts. It was only three weeks ago that bandits broke into two stalls and carted off over $2M in cash and grocery items.
The recent break-ins are becoming habitual; this is according to the market vendors. They are adamant that the Council is clearly taking no interest in the market. The vendors noted that the market constables have neglected to carry out their duties. They are also furious about the guards who never see or hear anything.
The vendors are claiming that the only activity undertaken by the Municipality is the collection of stallholder’s fees.
In the meantime, the vendors are of the belief that their stalls will continue to be invaded if the Constabulary continues to neglect them.
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