… suggests deploying more City Constables, plainclothes ranks
The parliamentary Opposition, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has condemned the decision by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to remove scores of vendors from beneath the canopy of the Stabroek Market after municipal officials said the area is a haven for criminals.
The area where the vendors are to be removed from
These vendors have been plying their trade in that area for decades, but last week Wednesday, City Constabulary officers said a man was in the vicinity with a rifle in his possession but dropped it and fled after Police ranks swooped down on him.
This prompted the City Constabulary to recommend that the vendors who have been operating in that area for several decades be removed. This decision was endorsed by City Mayor Patricia Chase-Green; however, PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee said on Monday that his party strongly rejects the proposal which he said is another move by the municipality to take bread out of the mouths of vendors and “force them into illegal activities who knows where.”
He said that City Hall, in its attempt to rid the Stabroek Market of criminal activities, will in effect be creating a wider societal problem by throwing more vendors on to the streets.
He said if the argument is that the vendors are being removed as a result of the firearm found in the vicinity, and then the argument must be extended to the situation at Bourda, La Penitence and other market places in the City. Rohee believes the removal of the vendors will not solve the problem.
“What is required is the cooperation of the vendors and an increase of foot-patrols by people-friendly, not arrogant members of the Constabulary as well as intelligence gathering efforts through undercover Police operatives working in collaboration with the City Police,” Rohee suggested.
The municipality, particularly its Town Clerk Royston King and Mayor Chase-Green are being heavily criticised for what has been consistently described as deliberate attacks on city vendors.
It started with a decision to suddenly remove scores of vendors from the Stabroek Square in the name of a clean-up campaign for Guyana’s Golden Jubilee celebrations back in May of this year, but with no alternative vending area.
That action attracted widespread protests from vendors who have been operating in that area for decades and eventually the municipality managed to temporarily secure a piece of land for the vendors.
That was followed by a unilateral decision last month by King to remove vendors from Robb Street, between Alexander and Bourda Streets. Again after protects outside City Hall and the Communities Ministry, the vendors were returned.
Rohee believes that all these actions by the Town Clerk and Mayor are appeasing the Granger Administration.
