The Charity/Urasara Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) in collaboration with the Regional Administration is continuing with its programme of dismantling vendor’s stalls that are encroaching on the drainage and irrigation system around the market area.
Vendors were given notices to remove but were reluctant to do so. The cleanup exercise commenced one week ago with a mini-excavator and a tractor and trailer clearing debris that encroached on the market area.
The cleaning is being carried out by staff of the NDC and workers attached to the Community Enhancement Programme. The entire process wet with criticism as vendors are reluctant to move and all of them depend on the trade for their survival.
Stabroek News spoke with Region Two Chairperson Vilma De Silva, who said that the cleanup exercise is geared at implementing a more “standardized approach” and all the vendors that were vending on the road shoulders will be accommodated in the market area. “It’s not that they were displaced but they will have to operate within the confines of the market area. The area will be fenced, it will have security and also a closing time.”
When asked how many stalls were removed, De Silva explained that there were approximately 14. She also touched on the challenge posed by improper waste disposal, noting that bins were placed at strategic areas so that vendors can utilise them. According to her, the garbage situation at Charity is currently “ridiculous.”
De Silva did acknowledge that some of the vendors are complying, while others were not happy with having to relocate. Most of the vendors that were removed were those that were vending over the drainage trenches. The region is currently improving the drainage system around the market area and as such needs to have the area clear. A fence will also be erected and lights installed.
It was disclosed that priority will be given to those vendors who voluntarily removed themselves from the road shoulders and no person will be allowed to vend outside of the market after the construction of the fence.
“The stalls will be protected, we are trying to get the market area in order and it will be done in phases and when they are developing we will have some displacement but it will be for the betterment for everyone… so we want to transform our region to attract tourists” De Silva explained.
The Regional Chairperson is therefore asking those persons who are vending outside of the market to occupy the stalls within the market. The intention, she stressed, is to make Charity clean and to provide a unique vending experience.
Meanwhile, many vendors are seeing the move as negative, claiming that the market is too far away and does not attract vendors.
“They are saying that we are blocking the drainage system; we have been here for years and this is what gives us money. They are moving us now to an area where no one wants to travel to get their goods,” a vendor lamented.
