President Granger has to stop the City Council’s asininities

Is there a conspiracy inside the upper echelons of the City Council to embarrass the Coalition Government? Is it possible there are elements that have a long incestuous relation with the Jagdeo regime that, in highly subtle ways, want to embarrass the Government so as to provide widening space for the PPP’s activism in the upcoming local government elections?

As soon as the Coalition got into office, acts of bravado in the City Council became graphically conspicuous. The Town Clerk issued edicts on the atrocity of pavement encumbrances. But open occupation of the pavements by rich business people was not manifest. This writer highlighted a fruit and vegetable importer whose business place is on the pavement.
A major private school has taken over a part of the parapet and has canopied it. I go to the perimeters of Bourda Market quite often. This area would take in North Road, Orange Walk and Bourda Street. The vendors make serious accusations of corruption against certain City council officials.

Any analyst who is worth his/her salt would be a fool to deny that corruption was not entrenched in the City Council from way, way back and is still there.
This columnist knows about a big, big vendor on Bourda Street that has an oligarchic relation with the City Constabulary. It is a barefaced form of village hegemony that needs to be extirpated after the local government elections.
These city police personnel would be openly seen remonstrating with poor vendors about pieces of their stands jutting out on the roadway, of dirty woods, of goods not properly stacked but would not touch the village oligarch. Obviously! The man has a billion boxes of brown envelopes. Interestingly, the boys on the street corners refer to a $500 bill as a Ramotar; $1,000 note as a Jagdeo and the recent green-coloured five thousand bill as a Granger. Maybe the large vendor with his huge building likes to give Grangers away.
I have heard millions of times people say; “Owh maan, dem city constabulary and policemen wuk hard and draw down little so deh must tek duh ting.”
That is nonsense. I grew up as a pauper on Wortmanville and never tek nobody ting, so did my sisters and brothers. I know of thousands of poor folks who aren’t tekking anybody ting but wukking for a living. If City Constabulary personnel and policemen need more money then find another avenue to get it but not at the expense of people’s rights.
How can you justify a traffic cop stopping a woman with her baby and bullying her to give him two Grangers?

After pavement encumbrances, City Council moved to Bourda Street and coerced vendors all because a rich businessman wanted to remove the derelict former Bedford School. One can understand the building had to be demolished but you cannot go like a tyrant and forcefully remove poor vendors like that.
The present City Council hates the word, “consultation.” The City Council is a bully that is contemptuous of consultations and the people of this country that voted for democracy must put a stop to this autocracy immediately.

So we come now to the car park on the East Street Avenue between Middle Street and New Market Street. Again no consultation.  The residents woke up to find a circle of steel poles and are instructed to pay $360 for the first hour and $300 for every hour thereafter. If ever journalism was entitled to use the word asininity to describe mal-administration and bad governance in a country, this is the occasion.
Where are second and third level white collar workers who have a modest car and work for over nine hours at the Georgetown Public Hospital going to find $60,000 a month in parking fees?
How could any city official be so stupid to come up with that? Why should residents and employees of the Georgetown Hospital pay $60,000 a month to park where they live and work?
Hamilton Green and Royston King should tell the nation how much they pay City Council to park where they work. President Granger and Prime Minister Nagamootoo and the Cabinet should tell the nation how much in monthly parking fees they pay when they go to their offices.
The answer to both questions is not one cent. They have parking facilities on the streets outside of City Hall and the Ministries. Why then should nurses, doctors, clerks, X-ray technicians and other medical employees pay $60, 000 per month to park where they work?  I wonder who is advising the City Council.  Is it, Chris Gayle?