Despite the ruling by a High Court Judge forbidding the swearing-in of two Berbicians to head the Gibraltar-Fyrish Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), Dr Veerasammy Ramayya ignored the court order and swore-in the NDC Chairman and Vice Chairperson.
Sixteen NDC chairpersons and their deputies were sworn-in on Thursday in Region Six
Kerwin Crawford and Gail Thomas were sworn-in on Thursday at the REO’s Office, Vrymens Erven, New Amsterdam.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had moved to the High Court to block the selection of a Mayor and Chairmen for five Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), after there were ties between the councillors to elect heads for those councils.
The party was seeking to nullify the selection of Crawford as Chairman and Thomas as Vice Chairman of the Gibraltar-Fyrish NDC along with Audrey Thomas as Chairman of the Industry-Plaisance NDC; Peter Livingstone as Chairman and Royan Junior Thomas as Vice Chairman of the Malgre Tout-Meer Zorgen; Carol Nurse as Chairman and Wilbert Vhypius as Vice Chairman of the Woodlands-Bel Air; Gershon Clarke as Chairman of the Woodlands-Farm and the selection of Rupert Henry Smith as Mayor and Astrille Gamell as Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Mabaruma.
Justice Diana Insanally ruled that the decision by Minister Bulkhan to select a Mayor and Chairmen for five NDCs was in violation of Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01 and the Local Government Act Chapter 28:02. She said the decision is in excess of and without jurisdiction, made in bad faith, is unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, based upon irrelevant and improper considerations, malicious, vindictive, unlawful, ultra vires, null, void and of no legal effect.
Despite the ruling on Wednesday, Dr Ramayya on Thursday went ahead and installed Crawford and Thomas.
When Local Government Elections were held both the PNC and PPP had a deadlock and had decides that each side would alternate the chairmanship each year.
Meanwhile on Thursday the heads and their deputies for the other 15 NDCs were installed.
The PPP has the chairmanship for 14 NDCs with the APNU/AFC coalition heading the Hogstye/Lancaster NDC. Two NDCs will be headed by women while six women are vice chairpersons.
Those sworn-in are Teer Arjune and Pamela Bhadrasami for Jackson Creek/Crabwood Creek NDC, Devanand Chitram and Ahmad Rajab for Number 74 Village/Number 52 Village NDC, Swarsattie Sharif and Nagaser Sookram for Number 51 Village/Good Hope NDC, Norbat Dean and Vera France for Joppa/Macedonia NDC, Ganpat Harbance and Muneshwar Bira for Tarlogie/Maida NDC, Natasha Dwarka and Kalamudeen Mohamed for Bush Lot/Adventure NDC, Forbes Moore and Bridget Chichester for Hogstye/Lancaster NDC, Kissoolall Chitreka and Sewat Veerana for Whim/Bloomfield NDC, Imran Ali and Navendra Persaud for John/Port Mourant NDC, Haseef Yusif and Lucille Ayana for Hampshire/Kilcoy NDC, Crawford and Thomas for Fyrish/Gibraltar NDC, Basant Persaud and Raymond Mohamed for Kintyre/Borlam NDC, Steve Dasrat and Roy Jaffarally for Ordnance/Fortlands NDC, Carlos Causeway and Sherriann Beharry for Canefield/Enterprise NDC and Padaarat Sebarran and Wajid Khan for Enfield/New Doe Park NDC.
Region Chairman David Armogan in congratulating the new NDC heads and deputies said their election to the office is as a result of the confidence people have put in them: “Many times what we find is that when people are sworn into respective offices instead of becoming servants of the people, they become masters of the people and that is unacceptable. We expect that every one of you here having been duly sworn will ensure that you execute your duties in accordance with the Local Government Act.
There will be many problems in the community, I don’t want you to come into this work thinking that it is a walk over and it is easy, those of you who have been around before would know that it is not an easy task to serve your community.
There will be many demands, many more than you will be able to meet but you will have to be able to extend your resources and stretch it to the maximum to ensure that more people can benefit from the limited resources that you have.”
Ramayya informed the new NDC leaders that they will be required to work closely with the Regional Democratic Council.
