At Parika Market…
A THIRTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD businesswoman and mother of one attempted suicide on Thursday and a businessman, reportedly the owner of 21 stalls in the congested Parika Market, East Bank Essequbo, is now at the centre of investigations into a claim that, having been pressured for years, she sold her property to him.
The circumstances have sparked outrage in the already troubled market and members of the wider community are calling on the Administration to intervene.
The worry surrounds the sale, for $1M each on Tuesday, of two adjacent six feet by nine feet garment stalls, belonging to two women.
Work continued throughout the night and, by the opening of business Wednesday morning, the dividing wall between the stalls had been dismantled and they were merged into one under new ownership, with fresh stocks on display.
Irate residents, charging discrimination, are against one person owning 21 stalls in a market where there is a shortage of space to accommodate the hundreds of persons struggling daily for a living, while enduring all forms of hardships.
Contacted by this newspaper on Thursday, Chairman of Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands), Mr. Julius Faerber, who had not yet learnt that the woman tried to take her own life, said the Regional Administration is aware that the wealthy businessman bought 19 stalls Monday and two more on Tuesday and the considered irregularity warrants a probe.
He said the occurrence had been brought to the attention of the committee responsible for administering the market and is being addressed.
Faerber said no stallholder wishing to dispose of his/her property in the market has permission to sell directly to another person.
He explained that it is mandatory for the seller to write the committee informing of the intention and present the intended buyer.
Additionally, the seller is required to inform of the price agreed and pay 10 per cent to the Committee, for the benefit of the Council, Faerber said.
Ironically, however, the Justice of the Peace (JP) who, allegedly, provided services on behalf of the buyer was, himself, a very senior official of the Regional Development Council (RDC) and is aware of the requirements.
Meanwhile, the woman who failed in the suicidal bid, is a diabetic and had been feeling unwell all week.
After returning home on Tuesday night, she had to be rushed to Parika Health Centre the next morning where she collapsed and had to be kept under observation for the entire day, receiving insulin and saline, before being sent away to continue on medication.
On Thursday, she became hysterical and in the failed attempt on her own life, lamented that she never wanted to sell where she carried on her business but was both pressured and lured into doing so.
She said her woes began when some people started to park their motor vehicles in front of her stall, blocking shoppers from her stall.
“That prevented me from getting sales and, after a time. I got really frustrated. I can’t begin to tell you the things they did to me in that market,” she declared, without calling names.