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City Constabulary upset farmers

Jan 31, 2011 News

With the recent adjustment made by the Public Works Ministry surrounding the relocation of vendors outside and around the Stabroek Market, the City Constabulary has come in for grave criticism from several farmers who ply their trade outside the said market, during the evening period.
One farmer, who gave her name as Bibi Azeem, related that she has been vending at the Stabroek Market for several years and had never been victimised prior to Saturday, when she along with 25 farmers were forced to handover $5,000 to the City Constabulary for an offence that they did not commit.
As it is, farmers are allowed to market their produce from 06:00 pm to 07:30am; they are also charged a rental fee.
The fees vary, depending on the amount of produce they display to be marketed. The farmers are alleging that on Saturday morning last, while they had already packed their remaining produce and were awaiting transportation, several City Constable ranks came and informed them that they were being charged for selling beyond the stipulated time. They were however escorted to the Stabroek Outpost and a particular Officer (name given) demanded that they pay a fine of $5000 each.
“The Officer came and said ‘I feel good, look how much of them in here…  I will now have a nice weekend,” Azeem told this newspaper.
She stated that after paying the money, she and other farmers were given a blank paper to sign their names on and were not given receipts for the fine they had paid.
The agitated farmers added that when they inquired about their receipts, the officers told them to leave the office before they are “thrown into the cell.”
“When we asked them for we receipts they told us that we must leave the office before they put us in the cell,” explained another farmer.
That caused the farmers to become infuriated. A visit was also paid to the President at Freedom House to seek assistance but that too did not work according to plan. “When we go to Freedom House, a man told us that no one was in the office to talk to us…so we decided to come to Kaieteur News to get help, because we are being victimised,” a vendor stated.
This Newspaper was told that some of the vendors had to borrow money to pay the fine.
They also grumbled about the amount of sales they received for the entire night. “Whole night we selling and when we check, some of we only sell $8000 and to pay them $5000 for something we did not do, is unfair to us.”
Kaieteur News was made to understand that the farmers came from areas as far as Laluni Creek, an Amerindian village up the Demerara River, and Parika Backdam, which is located on the East Bank of Essequibo.
The farmers lamented the fact that recently Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud visited their communities and encouraged them to ‘Grow More Food’ but when those same produce are harvested, farmers are given the “royal run around” to market them.
They further said that despite the fact that a rental fee is demanded they are most times ordered to clean up the area before leaving.
On the other hand, a senior official from the City Constabulary in an invited comment confirmed that several farmers who were vending over the stipulated time were arrested and fined. The official added that the vendors are well aware of time when operations should be halted and are bent on the habit of disobeying the policy.
“There are a lot of times when we warned them to desist from committing such acts but nevertheless our warnings fell on “deaf ears”, said the source.
When asked why the farmers were not given a receipt upon paying the fine, the official stated that she cannot see why the farmers are “making such a big issue out of nothing.” She went on to explain that the farmers were told that receipts would have been made available to them today.
“It is simple, I cannot see why these people cannot understand, it is not something that they don’t know” related the source who was very frantic throughout the entire interview.

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