Palmyra Monument project should not be abandoned

Sep 18, 2017 News

– Region Six Chairman

As the Palmyra Indian Arrival Day monument continues to crumble, Regional Chairman of Region Six David Armogan, says that it seems as though there is no hurry to complete the structure.
“We are coming very quickly to the end of the year and nothing has been done since it collapsed some months ago,” he told Kaieteur News.
“In fact they were hoping to have it completed by May 5, and they were hoping to have some sort of commemoration event at the monument site; but of course since then a lot of things have happened, the entire structure has fallen apart”.
The Chairman stressed that with over $20 M reportedly spent already; it is unacceptable that the structure be left in this state.
“The Indian Government bought all the bronze monuments to be placed there and they are lying there in the compound of the High Commission of India in Guyana. These people are waiting for the base to be done.”
He recalled when Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, along with the Indian High Commissioner, visited Berbice on an event to honour past sugar workers, they took the opportunity to unveil a billboard to state that construction will begin and be completed for May of this year.

The collapsed monument

“We have passed May and gone to September and nothing was done”, Armogan argued.
He is calling on the relevant authority to ensure that the site and base are prepared for the monument to be installed as soon as possible.
“I don’t know if the project is abandoned but that should not be, the Indian Government had invested large sums of money to do this and I think it should be completed”, he said.

A section of the fence falling apart

According to him, there seems to be confusion about who is responsible for the project. “First we heard [that it] was the Ministry of Education then the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, both have now denied responsibility saying it is the Office of the President”.