IN a telephone interview with this newspaper yesterday Region Three (West Demerara Essequibo Islands) Chairman Julius Faber said that swift and condign actions will be taken against market vendors who conduct business outside of the Parika Market Tarmac.

The Chairman said that although numerous written exhortations had been delivered to those vendors, and they had been given spots in the market tarmac, they persist with this illegal practice, refusing to occupy the spots given them.

“Numerous letters were given to them. We had served the notice on a number of occasions, informing them to remove; and we prepared spots in the market for them,” he highlighted.
Faber informed that he made time last Saturday to hold a meeting at the Hydronie market with the vendors who occupy the roadside, whereupon he took them into the market to examine their reserved spots.

“They still do not want to take up those spots. They are saying that the area was previously prone to flooding,” Faber disclosed.
However, he advised that steps had been taken and rehabilitative works had been undertaken to eliminate those issues.
“We cut drains, and when you go to those areas that were previously affected, there is evidence that this was done. We cleared the area, and drainage shouldn’t be a problem; and we told them of this,” he explained.

Faber said those unruly vendors have been staging protests since last week, but that would not affect the authorities’ resolve to move vendors off the road when they disobey the rules.

“I want to tell them that they have to go in the markets, and we won’t allow them to sell on the road shoulders. We have enough space in the market,” he declared.

He opined that the vendors’ issue has probably originated from political manipulation.
“I want to suspect that this is linked to politics… There is some man by the name of Best that came to us in relation to this issue and said he was from some market union in Georgetown, of which I’m not aware,” Faerber disclosed. Thorough investigations will be undertaken to arrive at the bottom of this situation, he said, noting that police ranks will be working overtime to deal with those persons who continue to defy the laws.

“We will have police ranks manning the area, and they will remove (vendors) as soon as they put things out (to sell). We won’t allow them to vend,” Faber declared. He added that vendors will be fined, and will have to pay a fee for the return of their goods once constables and police ranks would have seized those goods.
“They will have to pay a fine based on the number of item we are collecting, but we have not done so as yet for anybody,” he continued.

He refuted the assertions of Kaieteur News columnist Freddie Kissoon that items (including groceries) seized had been burnt at Bushy Park beach, saying there was no truth to that assertion. Faber said vendors’ goods had been seized on a Fridays, which is not a market day. However, some stalls were collected and burnt, nothing else.
“What we did on that day was collected some empty stands, dismantled and burnt them. We did not seize any other items from them, it wasn’t a market day,” he recalled.

Urging vendors to comply with the laws, Faerber noted that steps have been taken and places have been set aside in the various market tarmacs for persons who are vending.
“We have built three tarmacs at Patentia, Pouderoyen and De Willem, and we are asking that vendors comply by using the tarmacs available. We won’t allow them to continue selling on the road; this is a traffic hazard,” he stated.

He stressed that the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and the residents living within surrounding areas have been complaining about residual garbage post market days.Meanwhile, when contacted, the Local Government Ministry said steps are being taken at the level of the region to deal with this matter, with Central Government oversight.