– Minister Broomes advises Lindeners

JUNIOR Minister of Natural Resources Simona Broomes last Sunday urged Linden residents to hold their leaders accountable for the issues that were brought to her attention by them. She reminded them that the ultimate power was in their hands and was strengthened more with the holding of local government elections.
The residents took the opportunity at the public meeting to voice their concerns on several issues affecting them as was done the day before at a meeting held with Minister of Social Services Volda Lawrence. Taking precedence over the many complaints was the termination letter issued to over 200 Community Improvement Infrastructure Programme (CIIP) workers by the Mayor and Town Council.
Though the issue had been laid to rest by Minister Keith Scott on Saturday, Councillor Gordon Callender told Minister Broomes that persons in authority defied the Minister’s decision and continued to threaten workers of being terminated. This angered many of the residents who supported Councillor Callender in his claim that there were persons in the town usurping power with the intent to control the masses.
Minister Broomes posited that this concern could be solved with the people as those in authority were only ‘given a chance’ by the electorate. “If within the government you have your concerns and you have your problems you can deal with it. When you vote and you don’t like what is happening, you can make changes, you can take action and all of that,” she exclaimed. Minister Broomes in an effort to solve the issue encouraged the residents, more so the workers, to call an emergency meeting and send correspondences to the requisite ministry on the decision made by the people. “These are problems that you all can fix comrades. The power in the hands of the people…Local Government Elections. Stop calling on Ministers to fix problems, fix your problems in-house, put it on the paper, get it right.”
She reiterated that it was President David Granger who degreed that the “power is in the hands of the people” and it is “you the people who got to get it right.”
RDC Councillor Charles Sampson pledged his support with the CIIP workers but stressed that if the programme was to continue it must be done in an orderly manner. “The people must know upfront what are the hours of work. They also need to know who takes care of their NIS. There is so many irregularities in this program that needs to be sorted,” Sampson explained.
FACILITIES
The residents also sought the Minister’s intervention on the deplorable conditions of several schools in the region and the student hostel. The residents argued that with the reopening of school only two weeks away the children will be returning to the same conditions that are not conducive to learning. Minister Broomes in her effort to bring an immediate solution to the issue encouraged the people to be more au fait with the plans of the RDC and to be more involved in the budgetary process. She encouraged the residents to attend RDC statutory meetings but many of the residents revealed that they were intimidated to attend the meetings considering the attitude being displayed by Councillors.
One resident expressed his dissatisfaction in the leadership of those elected to serve and encouraged his fellow residents to call a no-confidence motion against them. “Call a no confidence motion against the entire RDC. We put a proposal to his Excellency that we have no confidence in the RDC.”
Leslie Gonsalves, citing his concern, said the authorities should be a part of the discussions and meetings to interact with both the Minister and the people but that had not been the case. “Today you are here you can’t see the Mayor, you can’t see the Deputy Mayor, you can see a whole host of people who are claiming to be leaders. “They are doing things more for themselves to be looked at for photo opportunity when it’s out of their league.”
Minister Broomes who detected a rift between the people and the authorities stressed that unity should prevail if Linden and Guyana should move forward. “The Town Council was elected, just now there is going to be another election but I would just like to ask of us to unite and I would want to ask the RDC that you make the information available to the people. RDC is about the people, NDC is about the people because it is you representing the local people.” Let us move Guyana forward, let us develop Linden. Stop the fighting.”
If that advice was taken seriously, Broomes concluded that Linden could return to what it used to be.