Fifty-three vendors were allowed to return to their spots on the Stabroek Market Square after a meeting with Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall yesterday morning. But others are still left to worry about their source of income as demolition workers yesterday broke down several stalls in the square.
The 53 vendors will resume vending on Monday, Lall said. Lall, along with Works Minster Robeson Benn, had a walk through the market square early yesterday afternoon. They were accompanied by the Town Clerk, the City Engineer, the Chief Constable and the Clerk of Markets from the Mayor and City Council.
“We made up a list of all those people who were there and basically based on the outcome of the meeting with the President we are going to reallocate them to the same place,” Lall said. By next week, the minister added, an agreement of tenancy between the vendors and the ministry will be finalised.
Lall said that the vendors who will return to the square on Monday are “those in front of the clock”. He will meet food vendors, bread sellers and night vendors later in the week to work out vending agreements.
However the vendors are returning to their main source of income with several stipulations. Said Lall, “first of all they have to keep the surroundings clean; they have to be in possession at all times; they have to vend from six to six, they have to remove their stalls; they can’t allow anybody to vend around them and they have to keep behind the line.”
All of this is aimed at “regularising” vending in the area, Lall said. “What has happened over time the owners have changed they transferred [ownership] quite illegally but now what we are going to do is identify those people who are in actual occupation.”
Meanwhile, as the ministers walked through the market square several permanent stalls were being demolished as vendors looked on helplessly.
“I’m out here 30 years. My mom was out here; she took over in the 70s. But the minister says things change overnight but we want to know yes, things change overnight tell we something from before; let us know what’s going on. We can’t be paying rates and taxes and then suddenly now we have nothing,” an upset vendor who gave her name as Indranie said. She owns a barber shop which was being demolished.
Another vendor, Yonette, who owns a food stall, said they were told yesterday that their stalls would be broken down. She said she took it upon herself to demolish the small wooden structure.
“Well I gah find something fuh do,” Yonette said.
Another vendor said she felt hurt by the action. “Everybody feel bad cause everybody out of a job. They sending people fuh thief now,” the woman who did not want to be named said.
“We gah Courts [hire purchase store] fuh pay; light bill wha gun happen? Plus I’m a single parent. Tell me what Jagdeo gun do fuh me?” Yonette questioned.
The vendors sat on coolers or stood around watching in dismay as a front end loader began to break some of the stalls. Other stalls were being demolished by men.
On Friday, some 81 vendors had met President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Office of the President (OP) after they were told by government ministers that they could no longer sell in the area following the detonation of a grenade.
Jagdeo had said he consented to the meeting “to ensure that we balance law and order with the ability of people to earn a living”.
On Wednesday, a man so far only known as ‘American’ died after a grenade detonated in the busy Stabroek Market square.
Following Wednesday’s explosion, vendors were told that they were no longer allowed to vend in the area. This triggered a large protest in front of various government ministries and City Hall the next day.
