City Hall displaying PNC militancy behaviour

Dear Editor,
A notice is being circulated to vendors around the city that seems to have come from the Office of the Town Clerk, stating that all street vendors in Georgetown will have to register with the city at which time (January 23 to February 27) they must have in their possession National Identification Card/Passport, TIN Certificate, two passport size photographs and 00.
What is not clear to us is whether the 00 is just registration, a yearly fee or if they will have to continue paying the 00 per week.
What is strange is that food handlers pay a yearly fee of 00 for their licence, so if vendors have to pay 00 for registration, plus the 00 cleansing fee per week (00) per month, this takes it to at least ,000 per year. The message being conveyed by the various oppressive actions of City Hall is that ‘You comply or you will be decimated’ – a clear act of terror.
City hall seems to have a fixation on vendors, they seem to have no plan as to how they must treat these small business entrepreneurs, they plant them in an anti-business area one day then unceremoniously uproot them shortly after.
There are affluent property owners out there that owe the City Council millions of dollars. They are not going after them but try to disguise their inefficiencies by creating a farcical Christmas time amnesty; an exercise that is obviously geared towards benefiting rich property owners. The city is the biggest loser in this exercise.
Vending in Guyana has become very traumatic in that a vendor leaves his/ her homes with a great apprehension, since they are not sure what spontaneous draconian terror tactics City Hall was going to put on them. What vendors need to know is into what account City Hall puts the 00 plus dollars per month collected from them.
Obviously, some of the money could have been used to develop a business-friendly place for vendors. What is heart-rending is that the vendors had to endure more than 20 years of this kind of behaviour under the former Government, but even though we have turned a new page, it’s the same script. What needs to be noted is that the vendors made a tangible contribution to that change.
The new directors seem to be basking in the euphoria of their assumed power, but it is by the promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak. (Eric Hoffer)
Effective action to deal with the vending situation is dependent on having an agreed policy and procedure. If the same problem is occurring regularly, it simply means that effective policies are not in place. The actions of the Georgetown City Council is contributing to if not creating an underclass culture of idleness, dependency and self-perpetuating poverty.
It is pellucid that their refusal to meet with the Guyana Market Vendors Union, coupled with their concomitant crass behaviour is geared towards the vendors/stall holders not having Union representation.
Finally, it is no secret that most of the vendors/stall holders are hard line militant supporters of the present Administration but some actors at City Hall are displaying very perplexing behaviour which is slowly eroding the fabric of People’s National Congress militancy in Georgetown.

Sincerely,
Eon Andrews
President of Guyana Market
Vendors Union