Is Roraima Housing Scheme a State within a State?

Sep 10, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

I live in Roraima Housing Scheme, which is situated at Plantation Versailles, West Bank Demerara. It is in Region Three. I write this letter to raise a serious matter and that is whether the Scheme has become a State within a State not subject to the laws of Guyana. A recent nasty practice of a resident dumping garbage on an empty house lot has raised the question of a State within a State.
Three weeks ago I reported to both the NDC and Regional Environmental officers that a resident of Roraima Housing Scheme had dumped her garbage on an empty lot. The garbage comprised pieces of rusty zinc sheets, drums, pipes, and plastic. Both officers informed me several times that they could not enter the place since it was a “Private Gated Community.” The NDC Environmental Officer, Ms. Williams, even told me that she was once denied entry by the security guards.
The false concept that Guyana’s State and Governmental agencies could not enter the “Private Gated Community” first emerged a few years ago when police raided a resident’s home and found 300 lbs. of narcotics. His family berated the guards for allowing the police entry saying that it was a “private compound.” The second time I heard of police not being allowed in the Scheme was the afternoon when President Ali was sworn in. A serving member of the police force loudly announced to my neighbour that President Ali was then Commander in Chief and that police could not enter the compound to harass anyone. Of course the police have always performed their duty when called upon to do so in the Scheme.
But now we have a situation where the Regional and NDC Environmental officers are being prevented from entering the Scheme to do their duty. And in the meanwhile the Chairman of whatever Association there is has failed to get the resident to remove her garbage. The same Chairman and his handlers had embarked on a massive spraying of poison in the Scheme to kill vegetation, snakes, caiman, and other reptiles but they have no problem with the dumping of garbage and worse they are of the view that the poison that kills other life forms is harmless to humans!

Yours sincerely,
Malcolm Harripaul, AA

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