Government and the Region Ten administration are expected on Friday to finalise the naming of chairpersons of the technical and economic committees established after July’s tariff protests, Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon said yesterday.
From all indications, University of Guyana lecturer Joycelyn Williams will chair the economic committee as according to Solomon the two sides have agreed for her to fill that position. However, he said, the region has rejected John Lewis – who has worked in the bauxite industry in Linden for a number of years and has knowledge of it – whom the government nominated to head the technical committee.
The government has not objected to the region’s suggestion of Earl B John who is a consultant at the Sandra Jones Associates Consultancy firm, which has done extensive work and research on management and conflict resolution including several projects for the government. But Solomon said that they have also put forward geotechnical engineer and groundwater hydrologist Charles Ceres and it seems he may be elected chairperson.
Solomon said the two sides were to meet last Thursday but because he was in Ituni to render assistance to those who suffered in a fire, that meeting was postponed to Friday. “We will find conclusion on the two committee chairs on Friday,” an optimistic Solomon told Stabroek News.
The technical committee is expected to review the electricity rates in Linden and the economic committee will be tasked with examining all studies, plans, and all sectors and their resources in use, new resources and human resources and develop a sustainable development plan for Linden and Region 10. Solomon also said that the region has prepared the first submission for the Land Selection committee to be properly constituted and set up.
Meantime, in relation to the television station for Linden, Solomon said that government is yet to hand over the Channel 13 transmitter to the region and a licence has not yet been granted. Earlier this month, he had said that there was much progress in the construction of the site for the station with the installation and acquisition of technical material and the region was prepared to proceed with the establishment of the station as requested by the people at the last public meeting on January 12.
Yesterday, the Regional Chairman said that the ongoing issue with China Central TV (CCTV) may work in favour of the mining town as it relates to a licence being granted. Government has faced strong condemnation over the allocation of channels 27/78 to China Central TV by the National Communications Network as many have expressed concerns that the arrangement has not been above board.
Initially it was thought that CCTV had been granted a licence to broadcast and this was condemned by several stakeholders as evidence of discrimination against local broadcasters. Weeks later, the government said that no licence had been provided but that NCN was merely relaying the CCTV signal and owned the transmitting equipment.
APNU last week called for the deal to be suspended, and spokesman Joseph Harmon, at a media briefing said that the irregularities at NCN are still to be addressed by President Donald Ramotar who holds the information portfolio. He said that the coalition had also written to the Office of the President requesting a complete copy of the report into the NCN investigation and has had no positive response pertaining to the recommendations in the report.
Harmon had urged the Guyana National Broadcast-ing Authority to invoke Sections 28 and 29 of the Broadcast Act to address the matter and said that until NCN could put itself in order, the operation of CCTV on channel 27/78 should be suspended.
He said that on Tuesday, 19 February 2013, the Guyana National Broadcast Authority (GNBA) made certain decisions, at its meeting, among which were:
(1) It will await an application from NCN (with accompanying plans etc) before it can address the propriety of the CCTV arrangement. A March deadline for submission was set.
(2) GNBA can only proceed with the Linden TV matter when an application is received from the Regional Democratic Council.
“The explanation by the Government as it relates to the CCTV channel has done more harm…and their bias to the region has shown more,” Solomon said yesterday.
The region last December had expressed disappointment that government had not kept its end of the agreement as it relates to the television station and its licencing and transfer of equipment to the RDC.
Acting Cabinet Secretary Gail Teixeira had said at a press conference that the region could not expect the government to sidestep the legal and technical requirements under the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) regulations and the Broadcasting Act and grant a television licence “at the wave of a wand.”
“We have assured them that we cannot do that, but we will facilitate as far as possible, their application in accordance with the law,” Teixeira had said.
