-also runs community centres
While the Ordnance/Fort Lands Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) continues to push its street and drainage programme, it is also heavily focused on continuing to build community relations with its counselling centre.
The NDC is chaired by Ramsundar Phagwah who has twelve years of experience along with newcomer to the political arena, Ashraf Ali Jahoor who is eager to make a difference in the lives of his fellow residents. This NDC was elected at local government elections on June 12, 2023.
Notably, almost all of the PPP/C-led NDCs within Region Six have followed a similar format of experienced leadership boosted by newcomers.
The NDC’s chairman, Phagwah, who emphasised the garbage collection programme, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Stabroek stressed that they pick up refuse twice per week and currently share a landfill site with a neighbouring NDC.
Presently, the NDC has just over 800 households. Phagwah pointed out that they are looking to acquire their own landfill site within their area given the expected increase in population once another phase of the housing scheme in Ordnance/Fort Lands is completed.
The chairman has had twelve years of experience with local government. He said that he started as a councillor then moved on to vice chairman after which he became the chairman.
“When I started it was nothing about being chairman, vice chairman, I just wanted to be a part of the council to make a difference in my community”, he said.
“It is my desire for betterment and I am happy to be a part of this council because we were able to realize some of the dreams of having our community grounds up for the youths, having a better community, cleaner environment, that’s why I’m so excited about the garbage collection programme because it avoids people dumping garbage all over the place, so with this initiative it helps us to keep the environment clean.”
Community engagement
Phagwah stressed that one of the main aspects of running a successful NDC is community engagement – something his team has taken a hands-on approach to. “The NDC is the management of the area, when you have community engagement as you go out in the community and serve and have meetings you would hear what the issues really are. If you’re sitting in the office you won’t really know much. When you go out, people come out and they feel free because they are in their area and they express their concerns.”
“We make notes of it and then come to our meeting and prioritize it and start working on those issues immediately… I think facing the people sometimes is not easy but I think facing them is what needs to be done”, he stated.
The NDC is one of the few in the region which has a functioning counselling centre where they assist at-risk youths, as well as carry out computer training programmes for residents and reading and educational programmes for the children within their catchment area.
Earlier this year, they completed a computer training programme which saw residents within their area graduating after successfully completing the course, while presently they have an ongoing programme for children ages 6 – 11 to improve in reading and spelling.
The NDC’s Vice Chairman, Jahoor, explained that there is a lot of community engagement works ongoing and according to him they have two operational health centres with one being equipped with a dental centre.
“We have a monthly clean-up exercise that we carry out. Also we strive to have a lot of community engagement with residents so as to easily iron out issues before it escalates”, he said.
One of their challenges, Jahoor said is that they are hoping to have more workers apart from their Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) team so as to execute more works within the council. “We are looking to have the process in recruiting CIIP workers through the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development be expedited because that would help us to enhance our capabilities in executing more of these works that are mandatory of CIIP.”
According to Jahoor, presently the road programme within their NDC is about 75% completed as he pointed out that several streets are expected to be done later this year by the government. “With the new set of roads that are coming out that will cover all the roads within the NDC and a few footpaths as well.”
Potholes
In terms of potholes, he said that once discovered they quickly try to get those filled as he stressed that they receive support from public-spirited persons as a result of the relationship they have built with the communities.
The duo repeatedly stressed that they are heavily focused on community engagements. “We go beyond the regular 8 – 4.30 work, any hours in the night, as we get a call, if water is rising we try to take preventative measures whereby we deploy the pump and so forth just to avoid flooding.”
According to Jahoor, the NDC has one functional pump and slasher which it received from government, “from our level we try to prevent it and bring relief as much as possible to the residents.”
Presently, they are working on ensuring that community grounds are slashed on a regular basis and plan to hold the management committee for the grounds accountable. “It’s a hands-on approach with the community and the NDC.”
Turning to Palmyra, which is next door to the NDC, Jahoor said that they are looking forward to the developments there which will greatly benefit the residents within their NDC.
While this is businessman Jahoor’s first time in a governance role, he stressed that he has always been a passionate and high-energy, community-oriented person. He said he was a member of the PPP/C which pushed him to challenge himself and take up a leading role within his NDC “to help more people and do more for my community.”
Turning to their streetlights programme, Jahoor said that they had done a number of solar-powered streetlights in various communities.
For years, villages within this specific NDC have been somewhat neglected when it comes to streetlights especially the heavily populated Cumberland Village, which often has persons loitering all hours on the road corner.
However, when questioned, Jahoor, who took up the role after the last local government elections, said, “We installed a number of those in our communities and for this year we have covered most of our areas and with government intervention of placing some it helps them a lot.”
In terms of drainage, Jahoor said that they have a very active programme as they would reach out to the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six which often assists with an excavator to do clearing while their workers carry out regular manual cleaning.
Additionally, the council shares a close relationship with the police force and has spearheaded meetings to bridge the gap between the communities and the police in their areas.
The NDC also observes each national holiday with a programme to bring together their workers while they also have a “games night” every fortnight where the council is joined by residents. “It’s a non-alcoholic night with games such as cards, dominoes, checkers at the NDC.”
The team stated that there are other programmes they have in the works to develop specific villages and address problems.
