Dear Editor,
We the members of the Cotton Field, Essequibo Coast, Vedic Mandir are calling on the relevant authorities to remove two lorries which are blocking the entrance to our mandir during prayer time. We have made several reports to the IMC at Anna Regina and the Commander of G Division, without any success. Our members are very disturbed at the attitude displayed by both.
The Commander told us that it is not the job of the police to remove lorries which are encumbering the roadway and entrance to people’s property; it’s the IMC which is mandated to remove obstructions. Editor, these two lorries are parked side by side in the daytime and at night in front of our mandir, taking over half of the roadway, and they have become a traffic hazard in addition to being an obstruction to our church. We know that previous commanders who were stationed here removed parked vehicles from the roadway when they were blocking people’s entrances.
We have lately built a concrete culvert which has cost the mandir $2 million, and the owner parks his lorries on our newly constructed culvert causing damage to it. We had appealed to him many times not to park his lorries and block our entrance, but he still continues. On many occasions our church members turned up for services and had to turn away because they cannot enter the mandir. The owner of these lorries lives opposite our mandir, but instead of parking his vehicles on his side, he chooses to block our entrance.
We had planned also to construct the street on the eastern side, running to Caricom Rice Mills, which would beautify the township and save the IMC millions of dollars in terms of cleaning the drains. This project will cost the mandir an additional $2 million, but we will only do it if we get the cooperation of the police and the IMC to prevent vehicles from damaging the culvert.
The owner of these vehicles has several businesses in his yard but would never park his lorries there because it would disturb his business. Schoolchildren and members of the public have to navigate between the vehicles on busy days when there is traffic; at night it’s worse because it’s a junction with a sharp turn leading to the Caricom Rice Millls Ltd. We are calling on the Commissioner of Police and the Traffic Chief to do something urgently so we can pray in peace.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
For Members of Cotton Field Vedic Mandir
