By Jeff Trotman
Regional Chairman of Region Ten Sharma Solomon claims that he has not been officially informed about the ‘Clean Up My Country’ programme, which was expected to be conducted in six wards of Linden from Wednesday 28 January to Monday 2 February.
Solomon told Stabroek News on Thursday, February 5, that the programme is being touted as having the involvement of the RDC but he as Chairman of the Region “cannot say how involved” the RDC is in this programme. Consequently, he does not know what sort of involvement the Ministry of Local Government & Regional Development is talking about.
Linden TV viewers were repeatedly informed of the Clean Up My Country exercise in the town through public service announcements on Channel 13. The announcements advised householders to put out solid wastes in front their yards for them to be picked up from 08:00 hrs on the specified day that the cleanup would occur in their respective community. The TV promotions were followed up with public loud speaker announcements in the respective areas of pick up, advising residents to put out their solid waste in time for them to be removed.
The schedule for the picking up of solid waste read: Amelia’s Ward North & South – Wednesday 28 January; Kara Kara/ RainbowCity/ Retrieve/ Industrial area – Thursday 29 January; Fairs Rust/RichmondHill/Noitgedacht/ Watooka – Friday 30 January; Wisroc/Blueberry Hill – Saturday 31 January; Christianburg/Burnham Drive/ One Mile/Half Mile/Wismar Housing Scheme – Sunday 1 January; Silvertown/West Watooka – Monday 2 February.
Claiming that the Clean Up My Country programme seems to have been plagued with confusion in being implemented in Region Ten,
Solomon said had Thursday’s meeting not been aborted the Regional Democratic Council would have been given a perfect opportunity to find out the status of the programme and the involvement of the RDC “so that all the confusion over the past week or so that has been surrounding this initiative could have been cleared up so that the people out there could get a better idea of what’s going on with the programme.”
He said the Linden IMC and the Region Ten Democratic Council seemed to be at loss as to what the programme is aiming to do in the communities. He further stated that the two entities do not know what resources will be used to conduct the programme. He asked: “How much money? Where is the money going to be spent? Who will be spending the money?”
Noting that Linden has eighteen wards and the Region has a NDC at Kwakwani, Solomon questioned whether the programme will be conducted in Region Ten in a similar manner as in Georgetown. Those are questions people are asking me. If I say where the programme is at this moment, I will be misleading the people because I have no knowledge. Nothing official about the programme came to the desk of the Regional Chairman.”
