EIGHTEEN new councillors have sworn to serve during the new dispensation at the Region 6 Democratic Council, resulting in the need for training, says re-elected chairman, Permaul David Armogan.Moments after the oath of office was taken before Clerk of Council, Mr. Paul Ramrattan, the returning chairman observed that with the new faces, there may be persons who, for the first time, may be exposed to the work of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC).
“I want to assure you that the RDC operates almost along the same principles of the Parliament, almost the same standing orders … at some point we will organise training sessions for councillors, so people can understand clearly what their mandates are and how they are expected to preform…”
Additionally, Armogan, who is favoured by both sides of the political divide in the Council, reminded those sworn to uphold the integrity of the Council by being respectful to each other.
Reminding those present of the relationships shared at the last Council, Armogan said: “I expect the same friendship and cordiality that permeated the last RDC will continue to be present here again… …we operate here strictly on the basis of respect for one another …we do not try to attack each other here, and call each other names and use derogatory terms. Whenever we address each other we do so with a great degree of respect and friendship; that is how we are expected to perform.”
“Further,” he said, “I trust we will continue to work in the best interest of the people, even though we represent different political parties; even though we have different political, partisan views, when we come into this room, we are councillors of the region.
“The fact that you have taken the oath of office as councillors, and if you take the oath seriously, you will recognise that you are not representing a set of people, but you are representing all the people of the region in which you operate. We will continue to operate in a way that is beneficial to all the people, every councillor have the right to raise matters, pertaining to the representing of their constituencies. At the same time, we have to put the general good of all the people before partisan matters…”