Is the Region 6 Chairman running a parallel NDC?

Dear Editor,

The Regional Chairman of Region Six, Dennis Deoroop, is ensuring that his tentacles remain tight on the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) within the region and in some cases, is running a parallel NDC, with the assistance of a few NDC Councillors, in his attempt to stymie the effective functioning of that NDC.

Recently, the Kilcoy/Hampshire NDC has been the prime target of the Regional Vice Chairman, since I objected to his criticism of the officials of the said NDC, whom he said, should have been more proactive in order to avoid the severe flooding at Nigg South. I pointed out that we had requested the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) to clean these drainage canals months before but to no avail. However, my recent criticisms of the Region Six 2017 Estimates have caused Deoroop to accelerate his vindictiveness towards my NDC.

On August 30, The Regional Vice Chairman with the assistance of a Councillor of the NDC convened a meeting with the residents of High Reef Albion and Anil Nandlall to ventilate ‘some issues’ affecting them. The main issue was the removal of the small excavator from the area. The said Councillor knew that the excavator was relocated to emergency areas such as Kilcoy South, Topoo, and Nigg South, yet he used this as an opportunity to cause unnecessary problems at the behest of the Regional Vice Chairman. Their plans failed since I informed Nandlall about the situation and the fact that I was not invited to that meeting. It must be noted that an emergency meeting was held and the deploying of the excavator was explained to the entire Council.

But what is more alarming is the fact that the Regional Vice Chairman is now completely ignoring the work schedule planned by the NDC and is deploying the said excavator as though it is his private property! In fact, on September 3, he deployed the excavator to do the private work of a resident at High Reef Albion while residents at Chesney were being flooded out after just two hours of heavy rainfall. The cleaning of the drainage in this area was slated as an emergency, yet the Regional Vice Chairman saw it fit to deploy the Region’s excavator to do private work, allegedly for financial gains. Is this not corruption? This man is totally unfit for the job and should be sacked immediately. It is rotten apples like these that give the impression to some people that the People’s Progressive Party is corrupted! The residents of the area alleged that this was done for money and this is not the first time that allegations of this nature have being made. It must also be recalled that recently, he was accused of deploying the region’s excavator to desecrate a cemetery at the 52-74 NDC much to the chagrin of the deceased persons’ relatives! Even our dead are no longer safe!

Lastly, I would like the Communities Minister to intervene to stem the lawless and dictatorial behaviour of the Regional Vice Chairman. I recommend that a committee should be set up to oversee the deployment of the machines within the region with immediate effect, to stop corruption. In addition, there should be proper supervision of works since operators are absent sometimes for an entire week and yet receive their full pay, not to mention sub-standard works. Moreover, it is a regular feature where these operators would turn up to work as late as 10:00h, leave early and still get the full day’s pay. Dr Ramayya spoke out against these corrupt practices and was unceremoniously forced to resign due to the pressure unleashed by the corruptors within the RDC.

Regards,

Haseef Yusuf