Newly-established committee to target illegal mining in Linden

A new Economic Committee which was established at the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) is expected to target illegal mining within the town of Linden.
Her Worship the Mayor of Linden, Waneka Arrindell recently disclosed that the Committee will seek economic opportunities from this angle since it was recognised that persons are freely taking road building materials such as sand and loam outside of the township.

The Committee, which is Chaired by Municipal Councillor, Norvel Fredrericks, is also expected to garner the feedback from the business community and other stakeholders. Arrindell pointed to some of its major tasks.
“We have so much road building materials within the township that persons are coming in and taking out of our town without paying. Now it is my belief that the resources of a town is there to develop that town; and so one of the propositions of the Economic Committee is for the Mayor and Town Council to acquire the documents to man those sites – removal of sand, removal of loam, the removal of road-building materials,” the Mayor said.
She added that the cost will not be heavy for residents of Linden but persons coming from outside of the community will be required to pay a cost to extract such resources. The Mayor noted that as a result of such illegal mining activities, the Amelia’s Ward community at Mackenzie has suffered tremendously.
“Amelia’s Ward has a community that is going to fall into a mining pit if we cannot stop the removal of that sand. That’s the kind of thing that the Economic Committee is going to look at,” she stressed.
The Mayor outlined that another major objective of the Committee is to look at how the Tourism industry can be improved to drive economic development in the town.
It forms part of a list of initiatives recently outlined by the LM&TC which is presently undergoing a massive “transformation process”, aimed at improving its internal functions and service delivery. The Mayor said this will see the Council making several administrative, technological and infrastructural advances in the coming months in an effort to improve its internal functions and operations.
“As we all know, the Mayor and Town Council has been in existence for over 50 years. When it began, it began with the support of Guymine and expertise from Guymine is what built the organisation. What has happened over the years, however, we have seen it declining because that expertise is now gone. What we’ve decided at this point is that we’re going to work to see how we can strengthen the municipality itself and allow for the administration to be more effective and efficient; because our belief is that if the administration can be effective, then the services they give to the town will be effective,” Arrindell said.
The Mayor said it has been discovered that there was little information remaining from past Mayors due to the use of personal email addresses, therefore, those Mayors would have left with their information. In moving forward, she said the Council has partnered with the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) which has given it an official email address and website. As such, the Heads of Department and offices within the Council will now have an official email address – [email protected]. Hence, once the current Mayor moves from that post then the email address remains the same for successive Mayors.
“This allows for continuity, for follow up of projects that would have prior been done. We are now going through piles of files to see what files and to see what information we have,” the Mayor stated.
The Council is also embarking on a process which includes major rebuilding of the constabulary, even as it awaits the appointment of top constabulary leadership. Additionally, the Council is seeking legal assistance as it relates to prosecutor training, writing of By-Laws and a suitable location for a detention centre for persons arrested by the Constabulary.
It is also engaging entities such as Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), Guyana Water Inc (GWI), MACORP, Digicel, and electricity companies for upgraded systems and infrastructure. According to a document drafted by the Council, it has engaged Massy Motors to determine costs for new heavy equipment and Beharry Autos to obtain costs for new vehicles for operations and employees.
Agencies such as the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) have also been engaged to arrest the squatting issue and develop alternatives for land use and residential purposes. As part of the transformation process, agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will look at waste management, pollution control and squatting while the Guyana National Bureau of Standards is expected to explore moving to an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO quality) for all of the Council’s operations.
The process will also see the reorganisation of departments, with the development of policies and paperless annual reports, while old records and files will be revisited to trace all of the Council’s properties that were taken, given away or sold to see how and when this was done. This would include information on the old bus terminal building and the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge.