Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine is adamant that the takeover of rehabilitation works for several city markets will not happen under his watch unless consultations are held with the city council.
On Wednesday, Minis-ter of Local Government and Regional Develop-ment, Nigel Dharamlall, announced that due to the perceived inability of the council to complete rehabilitation works on the Kitty, Albouystown, La Penitence, Stabroek and Bourda markets, his ministry is planning to take over these projects and complete them.
However, the mayor, who is responsible for the city, and by extension the municipal markets listed above, asserted that the projects takeover will not happen and described the minister’s statements as rubbish.
Narine told the Sunday Stabroek that this cannot happen since the ministry has not consulted with the council which holds responsibility for city affairs. He contended that the only way the takeover will happen is by bullying, a tactic, he said, is a familiar strategy of the ministry.
“He never consulted with the council so I don’t know how he will be taking over the municipal markets, like he is going to bully we, like they’re accustomed to”, Narine questioned.
Mayor Narine insisted that while he would not stop development, consultation must be done. “Consultation is necessary. We will not stop any development in the city but we must be consulted, we must be engaged”, he declared
“No government agencies can take over the markets. That’s the property of the council and the law stipulates that. Those markets are under control of the council,” the mayor fumed.
In explaining why the takeover must occur, Dharamlall said that too many locations that fall under the purview of the M&CC face similar issues, including infrastructural defects, lack of proper management, and inadequate security.
The minister asserted that enough is enough and it’s for the people to benefit from improved markets. He also insisted that the council has been earning billions and yet the works have not been completed.
However, the Mayor countered that the market projects are projects for which the previous government had promised subventions, but they were later booted out of power. Further, when the new government came into power, the subvention notice was submitted to the minister, but so far he has ignored them.
“The Minister never had any consultation. He never consulted the city council on those matters. However, the council did write the minister in 2021 and 2022, not only for Kitty Market, East Ruimveldt Market, Bourda Market – all the municipal markets, because we have done some work in 2019, 2020 on the markets. So, phase two and phase three ought to have been completed and the previous APNU+AFC government had promised to give us the subventions to complete those municipals markets. However, Minister Dharamlall never responded to those letters and it’s only a few millions dollars to complete the market”, Narine said.
The way forward in this new development is to be discussed at council level, according to the mayor, since the takeover would be illegal.
