By Mario Joseph
With no local government elections having been held since 1994, many residents of the neighbourhood council that encompasses Mon Repos, Annandale and Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara are unaware of the requirement for holding these every three years even though they have deep grouses about problems in the community.
The Mon Repos/La Reconnaissance Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) has been under the control of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) since 2012. The committee is chaired by Annette Dass and comprises seven other government-appointed members along with two community members, elected as councillors. The standard model for this council is supposed to be 18 elected councillors. The two elected councillors were sought for interviews but Ramjeet Persaud declined comment and Abdool Kadir was unreachable. The chairman herself citing her busy schedule and a family emergency did not provide any comment to Stabroek News on the state of local government in the community but committed to making herself available sometime in the future. The council meets monthly on the second Tuesday of each month at 17:30 hours with little to no citizenry involvement according to Overseer, Parisiram Ramkissoon.
The East Coast NDC is north-bounded by the Atlantic, south by the East Demerara Water Conservancy, west by a common dam between Mon Repos and Triumph and east by Agriculture Road at La Reconnaissance. It is said to cover some 28 communities according to Ramkissoon, some of which have not been formally handed over to them. The council is responsible for maintaining some eight schools, two health centres and a cemetery. In their possession is a compacting truck, donated by the Ministry of Local Government in November of 2013 and two tractors which facilitate garbage collection and drainage works for the