After two days of peaceful protests, vendors from the La Penitence Market were given an audience by President Bharrat Jagdeo who they say assured them that he would see they are properly placed before their stalls were demolished.
On Monday and Tuesday vendors who operate along Saffon Street protested outside the Office of the President. And around 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon during the protest, Press and Publicity Officer Kwame McCoy came outside and invited the vendors in to meet with President Jagdeo, Anita Arjune said.
Arjune was among the approximately 18 vendors who were outside protesting for assistance and proper placement before having to move from the Saffon Street location.
“We put the problem to he and he ask we what we have in mind – we tell he the empty land [on the corner of James and Saffon Street] and Sussex Street,” said Arjune. The vendor who says she has been vending at the market for a number of years said that Jagdeo, “talk very nice to we and give we a lot of satisfaction.”
Options
According to a GINA release, out of the meeting came an agreement for several options to be explored. “Some of the options include the construction of a tarmac in the Independence Boulevard area [also known as Punt Trench],” the release added.
According to Arjune the president said he will see to it that the area identified at Punt Trench is lighted and a police mobile unit stationed there. Vendors were opposed to moving to that area because they feared vandalism and theft.
Last Tuesday vendors were put on notice by the market that “anytime we gah move”. This followed an announcement last October that they will have to remove to allow for expansion of Saffon Street.
The street was returned to a two-way route after being a one-way from 6am to 6pm for a number of years. The return to a two-way roadway came about as a measure of curbing the traffic congestion resulting from vehicles coming from the East Bank.
“Girl I feel pleased about it,” Arjune said about the arrangements coming out of the meeting with the president. Many of the affected vendors, over 50 of them, said they too were pleased by the decision taken by the president. “We feel much better than…we mek up we mind we gah move is just that we get somewhere proper and some help to build back,” said Gordon Watson, another longtime vendor of the market.
Early February
Watson added that they are to meet again with the president in early February. He said that Ministers Kellawan Lall and Robeson Benn were directed by Jagdeo to “check the site and he gun give the money to do the place”.
“I feel good about it at least he was there for we,” said Bhagmattie. Bhagmattie said she is a single mother and “grow up at this market since I’m a child”. The response is generally the same from the vendors when asked how they felt about the intervention; they said they are satisfied with the arrangements.
“We hope that he lives up to what he promises,” one vendor quipped.
The Mayor and City Council’s Market and Public Health Committee was initially tasked with finding a suitable place to relocate the vendors following the announcement of the return of Saffon Street to a two-way route.
The vendors had submitted proposals for them to be placed on Sussex Street or on an empty lot on the corner of James and Saffon streets. To date no decision has been reached by the council.
In the meantime, a handful of vendors were given permanent spots inside the market. The council had also identified the Punt Trench location but vendors were opposed to it initially.
Yesterday when Chairman of the Markets and Public Health Committee Robert Williams was contacted he said that the committee had not yet decided on where to place the vendors. Williams, who is also the Deputy Mayor of Georgetown, said that “there is a process” which needed to be followed.
He said that the committee has to take into consideration the city engineer’s assessment, public health issues and acquisition of the land space identified for relocation before a decision is taken. Williams said he was unaware of the meeting between the president and the vendors.
This is the second time that the president has had to intervene in municipal matters. Following the detonation of a grenade at the Stabroek Market Square last week, vendors’ stalls around the square were demolished.
The vendors took to protesting and demanded a meeting with the president who granted them their request.
In that meeting, the vendors were allowed to return to the area but they had to follow certain stipulations. Meanwhile, the vendors at La Penitence will continue to vend along Saffon Street until a suitable place is found for them.
Residents sympathetic
As for the residents who live along Punt Trench many of them said they do not have a problem with the vendors being relocated to that area.
James Rampersaud, a resident who has been living in the area for 46 years, said, “Me aint get a problem as long as I gah space fuh me passage.”
Residents in the area were sympathetic to the vendors’ situation. “Everybody gah fuh live, people got children fuh mind what ya sending them fuh do thief,” remarked Clarence Allicock, another resident.
“Once they keep the place clean when they done do they selling and suh I aint get a problem,” Allicock added.
“Ya move them people from deh what these people gun do? I see it as unfair. I sorry fuh some of them,” said Sharen Allicock.
