THE Stewartville/Cornelia Ida Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), which manages six villages, have been overseeing developmental works in all the communities that comes under their catchment area.

Overseer Savitri Gopaul of the Stewartville/Cornelia Ida NDC told the Pepperpot Magazine that internal streets are being upgraded, and some are completed while drainage and infrastructural works are ongoing in all the villages.

Gopaul said the six villages that come under the Stewartville/Cornelia Ida NDC are Stewartville, Leonora, Groenveldt, Edinburg, Anna Catherina and Cornelia Ida.

She reported that they have five new housing schemes in these villages and under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) they have been trying their utmost to maintain the drains and parapets.

Gopaul added that they have partnered with the Ministry of Infrastructure to upgrade many internal streets in the six villages.

She explained that they have 19 CIIP workers and 116 part-time employees that began working at the health centres and schools in July this year, and they rotate in sets of two working 10 days per month.

Gopaul stated that they were supposed to have 216 part-time employees but only 116 were employed and they are hoping to fill the spots soon.

She related that the Stewartville/Cornelia Ida NDC is managed by 20 councillors including the Chairman, Jainarine Narine.

The Overseer pointed out that the NDC controls building, infrastructure and the collection of rates and taxes.

She stated that they have 10 constituencies and also process building applications, approval and recommendations, and cleaning of drains and parapets.

They do not do any garbage collection since they do not have a landfill site in the region and it is too costly for the undertaking.

Gopaul added that they have a tractor/trailer with a slasher and that is often utilised for the maintenance of parapets along the main public road, schools and community centre grounds.

She disclosed that they will be installing street lights in all the villages except Stewartville before the close of this year.

As the Overseer, Gopaul told the Pepperpot Magazine that she carries out decisions according to the bylaws and she has been at the job for the past nine years.

“You can never get accustomed to people fighting for an inch of the land but this job is what it is; challenging at times, but I have learned a lot and I am still learning. Dealing with the public is difficult sometimes and then carrying out the policies like breaking roadside stalls and serving notices for removal of illegal structures from the government reserve can cause a lot of people to be upset,” she said.

Gopaul stated that there have been no increases for taxes and rates and, so far, the locals have been paying up and they do collection on the last working day of the month from 13:00hrs to 16:30hrs.

The Overseer reported that a staff from the Ministry of Health Vector Control Service, Wanica Britton has an office at the NDC to deal with environmental issues.

“We learn something new every day and I just don’t sit in the office I do go out in the fields and work and I like it especially checking complaints and fact-finding matters,” she said.

Gopaul disclosed that the Stewartville/Cornelia Ida NDC needs a mini excavator and a dumpsite for garbage collection and disposal. Illegal dumping is one of the main issues in the villages they oversee.

Councillor Abdool Fazeel
Meanwhile, Councillor Abdool Fazeel told the Pepperpot Magazine that the housing scheme section of Cornelia Ida was the first village established in that community many decades ago when people depended solely on the sugar estates for a living.

He added that Cornelia Ida was a plantation; most of the lands were owned by GUYSUCO and house lots were given out to sugar workers back then.

Fazeel stated that Cornelia Ida has a mixed population and is a thickly populated village with six sections and the people’s way of life is very simple.

He noted that they have many civil servants, business people, and some self-employed folk.

The Councillor revealed that they are benefitting from an upgrade of the sea defence presently and he was happy about that development because they used to get a lot of flooding due to over-topping.

The last major flood was three years ago.

“More religious intervention is needed. The people need to turn to God and become more God-fearing because a lot of people walked away from religion and it plays a critical role in society and in families,” he said.

Fazeel is an Imam for the past 18 years and he is attached to the Anna Catherina masjid and stressed that god consciousness elevates us and we need to become religious once again.