Jagdeo says govt. will continue to help City Council

Jul 25, 2010 News

President Bharrat Jagdeo said, on Friday, that the government will continue to provide services to residents of the city despite its heavy criticism of the Georgetown municipality.

“There are little things that can be done in the City. We have a lot of workers that we support. I keep saying to them to just cut the grass on the parapet and remove some of the garbage and the city will look different. A simple thing as cutting the grass becomes a major rocket science task for the Council,” President Jagdeo said.

However, Jagdeo said he was pleased with developments in the city.

“…We see a growing city and if you drive around you would see better services on the part of the private sector, better buildings, nicer buildings, more modern facilities,” Jagdeo told reporters.

Jagdeo said that the government is spending over US$10M in setting up a modern waste management facility, even though this is an obligation of the Council.

He said that Local Government elections may take place at the end of the year and if this does not happen it will have to happen after general elections next year.

If that happens, Jagdeo said Georgetown residents will unfortunately have to bear another year with the “visionless council.”

The City Council has been pushing for the government to pay outstanding rates as this will help to pay garbage collectors, warning that if a health crisis develops in the city then this can pose a threat to the entire country. Central Government owes the Council $42 million in taxes for the third quarter. This was due on July 1.

Minister of Local Government, Kellawan Lall, came in for heavy criticism when he said he would be glad if there is a health crisis in the city as a result of the non-collection of garbage, because this would lead to the removal of the City Council.

Garbage has been piling up in all areas of the city after garbage collectors pulled their services to protest non-payments a month ago.

Waste Disposal contractors, Puran Brothers, Waste Disposal Service Cevons Waste Management Incorporated, and Crawler and Wheeler Waste Disposal Service, on June 21, made good on their threat to withdraw their services from the Georgetown municipality.

The contractors are owed $75 million.

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Mahaicony Rice Mills blocked by unpaid rice farmers

Several farmers on Friday blocked the entrances of the Mahaicony Rice Mills (MRM) at Black Bush Polder, East Berbice, demanding payments for paddy supplied during the last crop. According to a number of angry Black Bush Polder farmers yesterday, they have attempted in vain to get answers from the company.

“Dem keep telling we that de boss man not in or come back in two days or next week… somebody gat to do something…we ain’t get no money to even plant we coming crop,” a resident of Johanna, Black Bush Polder said.

Farmers placed old tyres and pieces of machinery at the entrance to the mill forcing police to send in ranks. However, no one was arrested.

Officials of the rice regulatory body, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), have received reports of the incident.

A senior official, who requested anonymity, said that it was forced to dispatch officers to the Mahaicony mill where farmers descended on the facility on Friday.

“We (GRDB) have been trying to ascertain how much money they owe farmers but they keep pushing us around. We went to their mills and they told us that only the General Manager can speak. We call for the General Manager but he is never in.”

According to the GRDB official, at Mahaicony on Friday, an official came out and took the names of the farmers there.

This latest development comes even as Essequibo farmers are also reporting that they too are suffering heavily from non-payments from millers.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Agriculture tabled another amendment that will mandate millers to put down a 10 per cent deposit on their previous crop purchase to ensure that at least farmers get payments.

Non-payments by millers had been a thorn in the side of the rice industry in the past decades with several amendments made to the law reducing the time farmers have to be paid.

This recent amendment is the latest salvo by government regulators to further tighten the screws.

With MRM also purchasing almost 40 per cent of the paddy produced by farmers in Guyana, officials have also signaled its intentions to put legislations in place to reduce the possibilities of monopolies in the industry.

In expressing its “disgust”, the Ministry had also lashed out at a decision by MRM to only pay $45M to farmers when it owed over $300M for the last crop. This was despite the fact that the company made two shipments for almost US$1.9M ($380M).

MRM, had reportedly used the money to buy fertilizers to resell to farmers. The Ministry, in a letter to MRM on July 19, said it regarded the actions by MRM as sabotage.