MP calls on residents to petition for disbandment of N/A Town Council

Jul 18, 2012 News

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… Mayor insists “IMC will not happen”

 

By Leon Suseran
People’s Progressive Party/Civic Member of Parliament (MP), Faizal Jaffarally, is urging residents of New Amsterdam as well as the business community to have a petition sent to the government to disband the present Mayor and Town Council (M&TC) and install an Interim Management Committee (IMC).
“Let us put people who will have the town at heart, and people who will provide services… service-oriented people; people who are committed to seeing N/A as they would normally say, ‘return to its glory days’ when we had a town.”
An IMC, the MP stated, can be established to manage affairs, but not before a procedure.
“There has to be a petition by the residents of New Amsterdam saying that they are not satisfied with the council’s services, after which an investigation will take place. A Commissioner will come and advertise a place and time where he will meet residents of the town and he will take all of the submissions by the residents, including the present administration, and decide. Based on his (commisssioner’s) advice, the Ministry has the authority to appoint an IMC.”
“The Region 6 Administration has been repairing kokers, digging drains, cleaning canals, building streets in the town, but people need to understand – and sometimes people make unfounded and unnecessary criticisms of the Region 6 Administration – that the New Amsterdam Municipality is an autonomous body and is governed by the Mayor and Town Council, and in this case, the council is controlled by the political opposition, the People’s National Congress (PNC)”.
Jaffarally recalled a call sometime last year by the Berbice Chamber of Commerce and its then President, Gyandat Marray “for the disbanding of the present town council, but then some other members of the said council said he was not authorised to speak”.
“The residents of N/A have had enough of the M&TC and too often, they (council)  try to shift the blame…they have to understand they are responsible for what is happening in the town because we pay our taxes to them so they need to provide the services,” Jaffarally stressed.
He said that while the government has been pitching in to assist the town in many ways, the township and its leaders are not maintaining the works.
“Whilst that canal is the responsibility of the M&TC, from time to time, the government will de-silt the canal, but what has happened, is that after it has been de-silted, the council is not maintaining it, so the region cleans it at a particular time of the year but the council does nothing, to sustain or maintain it in a proper manner so it can take water off the land… and in case of a fire, that is a reservoir which the fire service uses.”
However, Mayor of New Amsterdam, Claude Henry emphatically dismissed the MP’s assertions.

 

“Jaffarally always talks a lot of nonsense; it’s not anything new. An IMC will not happen in New Amsterdam. It is not the first time he has been talking stupidness, and only he has been seeing an IMC for N/A. If you can tell me one other person who wants to have an IMC in N/A, I will step down.”
Henry noted that Rose Hall Town had similar issues a few years ago and an IMC was installed, but that did not solve matters. “That IMC was even disbanded a few times (3 times), and it’s not better off, so whatever persons want to say, they have a conscience and we are not mismanaging this council.”
The Mayor said that every community and town has its issues and N/A is no different.
“This town has been making a lot of contributions to this economy and whatever the government or region has to do, we’ve got no problem”. A government is a government of all the people and we don’t have to sit and beg the government to help, the government ought to help willingly, because this town is paying taxes to the government, which in turn must help N/A…It’s not an ‘if’ or ‘but’.”
The official stated that the town has a small budget and does not garner much money in terms of rates and taxes.
“The recommended taxes for the town have not been assented to by the President for a number of years, so our tax base is very low.”
Mayor Henry added: “People have been contributing by way of income tax, by their work, 16 per cent VAT, and it is my view that the authorities must help this community. Government does roads and streets all over the world, and the few streets being done by the government is not much to talk about, and if you walk in some of those areas right now, with the overtopping you had a few days ago, you will see the tops of those streets are off— all the chip- seal are off.”
“We have no axe to grind with Mr. Jaffarally. If I had wanted to grind an axe with him, it would have been done many years ago. We don’t play politics at this town council, because we have members of the PPP/C on this council, and we all sit here and make decisions, not in isolation, as he [Jaffarally] said, ‘it’s a PNC-run council’— we don’t do that up here. He is mischievous and he is wicked…and further I say not.”

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