The Interim Management Committee (IMC) of Plaisance is in the dark about the erection of a tower for government’s e-governance project on the community centre ground which was initiated at the direction of the Office of the President (OP).
Plaisance residents, who said they were not consulted about the decision to site the tower in the Plaisance/Industry Community Centre ground, forced works to be halted on Sunday and a community meeting has been scheduled for today to settle the issue.
A source close to the IMC, which was installed late last year after Minister of Local Government Ganga Persaud dissolved the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), indicated that while the issue was raised once at a statutory meeting of the committee, it was not deliberated on by the members.
Stabroek News was told that the committee members were informed by Overseer Kyron Williams, who is not from the community but was placed there last year during the period when the local government ministry shifted around overseers, that once the letter comes from the Office of the President there is nothing they can do.
“The overseer said that once the letter come from the Office of the President it can’t be stopped so it was not deliberated on by the committee. But we did not know that any work start until we see it in the papers,” the source said.
When contacted yesterday by Stabroek News, Williams said she does not have “any comment to make at this time,” while Chairman of the IMC Seedath Persaud said he would not be commenting on the issue until he met with the other members of the committee.
It was as a result of objections by residents, who converged at the community centre on Sunday, that government engineer Walter Willis stopped the works pending the outcome of the community meeting. Residents had complained that they were totally shut out from the process, while pointing out that no consultation was done with them and it was only after some of them observed what was happening that they decided to investigate.
They likened the building of the tower to what was done with the land just behind the community centre ground that is now called Pradoville 2—now the home to a number of influential persons, including former president Bharrat Jagdeo—as they were also kept in the dark about how the area was selected for a housing scheme and the distribution of the land titles. They also pointed out that a transmitter that had occupied that space was demolished and relocated to facilitate the housing area.
Yesterday, the IMC source pointed out that had the committee been involved in the process, the residents would have been engaged.
“This thing could have been handled better because if the [committee] was involved, the residents would have been consulted, it would have been better if the [committee] was involved,” the source said, while adding that the members were very concerned about the issue.
When contacted yesterday, Regional Chairman Clement Corlette told Stabroek News he was also in the dark and would not comment on the issue further until he makes contact with the IMC. He did, however, say that on Saturday he passed the ground and saw some piles at the ground but he thought it was part of the normal maintenance work at the centre until he read the about the tower in yesterday’s newspapers.
Yesterday, when Stabroek News visited the ground, no work was ongoing and a few residents were seen flying kites. Many residents again expressed shock at the administration’s intention to erect the tower at the centre, while pointing out that it could pose a danger to the health of residents who use the ground if the tower is so near.
Stabroek News understands that persons who work in the office of the NDC are also in the dark about the erection of the tower and it appears as if Williams was the only person who was aware of the plans.
This newspaper caught up with the former overseer of the village, who asked not to be named, and she recalled that she was just instructed to relocate to Betervewagting and Williams was sent to Plaisance. The woman, who is now retired, said she was shocked and surprised at what is happening. Had she still been on the job, she said, the residents would have bee
n consulted, since she is from the village and would have wanted to have the community involved. Asked why the ground appears to be unkempt at the moment, the woman said that while she was in charge she ensured that the ground was weeded regularly, but this seems not to be the case at the moment.
‘Clandestine’
Meanwhile, former Chairman of the now defunct NDC Clinton Rollox yesterday spoke of how the council was “clandestinely” removed from office without any consultation done with residents. While he admitted that a number of the council members have migrated or died, including the initial chairman whom he replaced, Rollox said that residents had no say in the selection of the persons who are now managing their community.
He recalled that sometime later last year he was told that the NDC would have been replaced “but I pay no mind because I knew nothing about it.” The man said it was sometime in November or October he received a letter signed by Minister Persaud “thanking me for my service and that was it.”
Rollox, who is well known in the community and once owned a popular bakery, said he was very hurt over the process since he had served the community since 1994.
Asked about the tower that is being built, Rollox said the first he heard of it was when he read it in the newspaper. But he pointed out that even though he was chairman of the NDC at the time when the land was distributed in Pradoville 2, he was none the wiser about the process or even how the area because a housing area.
He recalled that sometime back he was with then President Jagdeo at a meeting with Plaisance residents when some of them questioned him (Rollox) about the area and he told them he knew nothing about it and that he thought the president might have been in a better position to address the issue.
“But all he did was laugh, he said nothing,” Rollox recalled.
The former NDC chairman said the only official piece of correspondence he received on the area was a request from a government minister who had a piece of land in the area. “He sent someone and asked if I would write a letter of no objection to him transferring a piece of the land to his sister but I told him I knew nothing about the land being a housing area. I was not involved in the process. So, how I could write a letter of no objection? To say what?” Rollox said.
He noted that he informed the minister’s emissary that if the minister dictated what sort of letter he wanted, he would perhaps be able to sign. “He wrote some kind of letter but I never signed. I would not sign something I know nothing about and to tell you the truth I know nothing about what happened after,” he added.
Rollox said the same thing is happening again and he is not sure what residents can do to stop what has already started.
On Sunday, Willis had told this newspaper that the works are part of the government’s $3.1 billion e-governance project and that he was tasked with assisting with the implementation of the project by providing the necessary technical oversight.
When he was asked why the community centre ground was chosen for the site of the tower, he said that though several factors could have played a role in determining the site of the tower, he was unaware of them. He explained that he was simply told by Project Manager Alexei Ramotar that the ground was to be the site of the first tower. He also revealed that the tower only required a 33x33ft space of land, which was in line with the ground’s pavilion.
The e-governance project will see the running of fibre-optic cables from Lethem to Georgetown and works are expected to be completed by September after several setbacks resulted in the project missing its original completion date by more than two years.
