— no real change at Anna Regina nearly one year after Local Govt Elections

JUST under a year since Local Government Elections (LGE) were held here after a 21-year hiatus, heralding hopes for better management at the community level, evidence of this is yet to materialise in the township of Anna Regina.The only town in Region Two, Essequibo Coast, spans 18 villages, beginning at Three Friends in the south and ending at Walton Hall in the north and has a population of over 15,000, the majority of whom are farmers.
All 16 seats on the municipality are occupied by representatives of the two major political forces in Guyana, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.
Prior to Local Government Elections, the township was managed by an Interim Management Committee (IMC), which was installed due to the absence of a duly elected body by the people.
Following the LGE in March 18 last year, the township, traditionally a PPP/C stronghold, maintained its voting pattern, allowing the PPP/C to command 14 of the 16 seats on the Town Council.

Villages in Anna Regina, like others on the Essequibo Coast, heavily depend on rice to stay afloat, and the last LGE was held at a time when the industry there was experiencing a decline.
Anna Regina Mayor, Rabindranauth Mohan, told the Guyana Chronicle that the standstill or lack of progress in the township is due to the Council being severely cash-strapped, a situation he said he inherited and is working to change.
Properties in the township were last evaluated some 25 years ago, and since then, the landscape of the township has been significantly transformed.
In 2006, a property evaluation was done, but it was rejected by residents who cried out that the proposed rates were too high.
Since then, there has been no re-valuation, and all new buildings, including businesses and expansive private property, still pay the old rates and taxes.
These range from $80 to $6,000 annually for residential properties and $6,000 to $15,000 annually for commercial properties.
According to Mayor Mohan, several requests were made to the former administration for a re-valuation of properties in the township,but to no avail and now to the new administration, and it is yet to receive a positive response.
This situation, he said, has contributed to the town being starved of much-needed funds to pay staff and to carry out critical work programmes, pointing out that municipal workers received their December salaries in January this year.
GOOD NEWS
APNU+AFC Councillor Mark McLean agreed with the mayor that there is need for a new evaluation of properties in the township, and pointed out that an evaluator recently visited the region and is expected to commence work soon.
According to McLean, based on the information he has received, “only big buildings” will be targeted in the first phase of evaluation, and hopefully, eventually, all buildings in the township will be covered.
He also pointed out that while a re-valuation will mean more money in rates and taxes for the Council, the Council will also have to do better in improving its revenue collection, which currently stands at 30 per cent.
Aside from the low rates and taxes and its woeful collection rate, the Council no longer receives rates for Drainage and Irrigation services, which is now under control of the Water Users Associations (WUAs).
In the past, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) used to collect this rate and disburse 17 per cent of the collection to the Town Council, until the WUAs came into being.
“The WUAs operating and providing a service in the township will have to make a payment to the Council and we will be moving in this regard,” Mr Mohan said, noting that the Council needs the money to provide a better service to the residents of Anna Regina.
The Council receives an annual $15M subvention from central Government, and according to the mayor, this sum while handy, does not allow for any major works.
A mini-excavator owned by the Council has been sitting idle in the Council’s compound, and according to the mayor, there is no money to buy fuel and pay an operator to work it.
STILL THE SAME
A resident who gave his name as Dharampaul, said prior to the LGE, clogged-up drains and weed-infested canals in the township were evident, and it still continues to happen.
“When it rains, the town is flooded and mind you, this only started happening about 10 years ago. Before, the rain had to fall really heavy for the town to flood. It never used to flood this easily,” the resident said.

Mayor Mohan acknowledged that key drainage channels have to be kept clear and has requested that Regional Executive Officer Rupert Hopkinson lend the town an excavator to assist in carrying out these critical works.
Most of the drains in the township are cleaned through the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project, which is funded by Government.
In a bid to raise revenues, the Council has also rented the bottom flat of the Council building to the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and has made a proposal to Government to assume ownership of the not so recently constructed cereal factory in the town. The factory is expected to commence operations soon.
“Monies from the factory will be invested into the development of the town. We will manage the factory and take on the tasks of finding producers and finding markets for them. We believe that this venture will be of much help in terms of improving the financial status of the town,” Mayor Mohan said.
McLean said the coalition fully supports the factory being under the ownership of the Council, but said due attention must be given to proper management of it.
Mayor Mohan also disclosed that the Council has agreed to build a daycare centre in the town to provide a service for differently-abled children and senior citizens at a reasonable cost.
The land to house the centre, which will be built through a Government of Japan grant, has already been identified, Mohan said.
McLean, who lamented that there has been a lack of income- generating ideas and projects from the Finance Committee of the Council, praised the Council for approving the construction of the centre, saying it is a project long overdue.
ANNA REGINA MARKET
While there is agreement on this project, it is the opposite when it comes to roadside vending at the Anna Regina market.
Recently, media reports indicate that an agreement was reached at the Council to remove the roadside vendors, but Mohan said this is not true.
“The Council has not given permission to remove the vendors. The matter was in- deed discussed at the Council and a decision was taken to look into the matter. This cannot be equated to removing them. I know that they are vending illegally, but they have been for years. I have no intention of putting anyone out of bread, especially in a case where there are about 40 single-parent mothers trying to eke out a living amid economic hardship due to the slump in the rice industry, the mainstay of the economy of Region Two,” the mayor said.
He added: “This is not an easy decision to make, but we will look at it with the aim to sensibly address the situation. There will be no sudden or overnight breaking down of

vendors’ stalls. They will be moved after wide consultation and after a suitable, alternative location is identified for them. Look, even in the U.S. there is roadside vending. For now, we will ensure they do not encroach on the roadway and all of them have collapsible stalls as we do not want a shanty town on the roadside of the market.”
But Mclean differs, contending that the minutes of several Council meets indicate that the Council has repeatedly agreed to stop roadside vending, but the decision was never implemented.
“I have nothing personal against the roadside vendors, but like all, they must abide by the law. They provide unfair competition to vendors in the market who pay a tax to sell in the market,” said the APNU+AFC councilor, who owns a stall in the Anna Regina market.
The roadside vendors pay an environment tax of $500 per day to the Anna Regina Market Committee. They say there is no space in the market for them to vend, but McLean said there is plenty of space at the Bush Lot Market.
Some of the roadside vendors at the Anna Regina Market also own stalls at the Bush Lot market. They contend that Anna Regina being the centre of commercial activities in the township, persons hardly visit the Bush Lot market, which was established a few years ago to eliminate roadside vending at the Anna Region market.
This aside, they pointed out that persons do not go in to shop at the Bush Lot market, but McLean stressed that if the vendors were made to sell inside the markets, shoppers will have no choice but to go inside to make their purchases.
Mayor Mohan said the situation at hand is a “ticklish one” and the need to have a single market in the township will be examined.
The market matter aside, he said the Council will be looking to repair the dilapidated Anna Regina Community Ground which hosts all major activities in the region and establish two new dumpsites in the township.
The ground, the mayor said, is an important revenue generator and the dumpsites will be new revenue streams.
GARBAGE DISPOSAL
Resident of the township, Mohamed Khan, lamented that garbage disposal is managed by Puran Brothers, a private company, and residents are required to pay $1560 per month per barrel of waste disposed.
“Those who cannot afford dump the garbage on the reserves and in the canals and it becomes an eyesore,” he said, but Mohan noted with the establishment of the new dump sites, the town will be providing this service at a reduced cost.
He said the Council has a tractor and bins, but has to pay to dump on the site managed by Puran Brothers, and at this time, it does not have money to do so.
Many of the persons who spoke to this publication did so under the condition of anonymity and pointed out that councillors of the town need to be more in the communities listening to, and addressing the concerns of the people.
Almost every resident who spoke with the Guyana Chronicle had not known, heard of or seen the councillor of their community.
Some even suggested that had the Council been dominated by non-political persons, the situation would have been different, contending that the representatives of the two major political parties act in their party’s interest.
“It is the same old under new leadership; nothing has changed but there is hope,” one resident who asked not to be named, said.
The next LGE is due in 2018.