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Prisoners praised for city clean up work
Minister of Public Works and Communication, Robeson Benn has expressed satisfaction with the work being done by prisoners in ensuring the cleanliness of the ‘garden city’.
The Minister made the observation during one of his many spontaneous tours to see the progress being made in the arrangement with the Guyana Prison Service in restoring some cleanliness to Georgetown.
The Guyana Prison Service has been engaged in providing labour for the enhancement of the city, an arrangement that was implemented since last year.
Inmates of the Georgetown Prison cleaning on Mandela Avenue last Friday.
“We have given them weeding machines. There is usually a team of 25 that come out and this is a continuous programme. We’re expanding it this year,” the Works Minister explained.
According to Benn, his Ministry had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Guyana Prison Service for the cleaning of the canals on a continuous basis.
He said that the major problem stems from unscrupulous persons dumping garbage just as the team leaves an area.
“I’m very much satisfied with the work that they do. We get a lot of bang for the bucks as I would say,” Benn told this newspaper.
In addition to a small fee, the prisoners, who are mostly trustees, benefit from a special meal at the end of each work week, provided by the Ministry.
According to one of the Wardens supervising the inmates, the team is chosen by picking out the better behaved inmates who are less prone to escape.
The Minister has warned that a more assertive effort along with sanctioning will be applied to deal with the high incidence of littering.
The Minister’s warning comes amidst a massive clean up of the capital city in time for the upcoming CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting, scheduled to commence in a week’s time.
But while the campaign is in its height at the moment, Minister Benn assured that maintaining the standard will be ongoing and efforts will be intensified to prosecute persons who violate the law.
“It’s a City Council issue but it is something we are discussing with them,” the Minister pointed out.
Work on restoring the capital city commenced in earnest two months ago, following government’s decision to provide $120M to the Mayor and City Council over a 12 months period.
He noted also that a lot of garbage come from persons in minibuses, a situation that was temporarily addressed by the placing of garbage receptacles in public transportation.
To this end, he advocated that a more concerted programme of public information be implemented.
“We have just finished 25 or more garbage bins which we will put at some bus stop locations we have established in the city, especially along Regent Street. But at the end of the day, Guyanese have to be able and have to want to see that their city and their environment is clean, just as they are impressed when they go or see other cities,” Minister Benn said.
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