-says council should work with gov’t on initiative

FORMER Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and chairman of the GAICO Construction company, Komal Singh has thrown his full support behind President, Dr Irfaan Ali’s recently announced plans to transform the capital city, Georgetown.

Singh was at the time speaking on the “Spotlight” programme, during which he described the President’s intervention as long overdue and urged the Mayor and City Council to embrace the initiative as a collaborative effort rather than view it as interference.

“When he announced this initiative, the first thought that came to my mind, it’s long overdue,” Singh stated.

“It was very encouraging to see that the President is taking that bold initiative but at the same time, it was somewhat regrettable that the President had to intervene to help bring our city back to some semblance of order, when the basic responsibility for maintaining our city and keeping our city up to [a] certain standard should have come from the Mayor and City Council,” he added.

Singh went on to say that while the situation is unfortunate, the intervention will serve as a catalyst for broader development across the country.

“Whatever we see going to be happening here over the next couple of months, as they unfold, it will also use now as a catalyst to transcend across our country… the intention here is to make sure that our country, and not just our city alone, but our country, meets some level of international standard when it comes to cleanliness,” Singh said.

Against this backdrop, he stated that the private sector is prepared to support the President’s efforts.

He said, “I think all the private sector [bodies] across the country, here right now, will welcome this initiative and jump on board and work with the President to make sure we can see some level of transformation within the shortest possible time.”

Further to this, he stated that he believes the challenges facing the city council are not solely financial, but also stem from a lack of political will and enforcement.

“It is not about the funding. It is with having the political will to get it done,” he stressed. “If the city is allowing people to dump garbage with no consequences, then people continue to dump the garbage; there need to be consequences for your action.”

Singh added that enforcement should be a joint effort. “We need to hold people accountable for it. And I think that that is a collective effort from the City Council and government and police and EPA need to start getting involved and making sure that people are held accountable for their actions.”

To this end, he defended the president’s right to intervene, noting that it is the president’s right to ensure that every citizen around the country lives and does their business on a daily basis in an environment that is clean, conducive and healthy.

Singh further encouraged co-operation between the council and government. “If the President gets involved… I don’t think it’s in any shape or form he’s taking away any authority from the City Council. The City Council should be very happy that government is participating in helping develop the city and I will encourage the city council to work with the government on this initiative.”