BY chance, I was browsing the Stabroek News website and happened to see a letter entitled “This complaint of noise nuisance has been fully investigated” posted at 7:00 am on December 13, 2007. The letter was a reply by the Hon. Police Commissioner (ag.), Mr. Henry Greene, DSM. Of course, Commissioner Greene has since been confirmed to that post. The letter was a reply to Mr. Mohamed Khan. I have incessantly highlighted the issue of noise and dust pollution resulting from hardware operations by Boodhoo’s General Store in Cotton Field on the Essequibo Coast.

Since Commissioner Greene has yet to “advise further” as stated in his letter. I thought it necessary to update him and other relevant authorities of progress or lack of progress made following their intervention.

To begin with the manager of Boodhoo’s General Store, who Mr. Greene identifies in his letter, still holds his portfolio, and still is unable to persuade his staff to desist from slamming, dragging and dropping truck loads of steel rods on the concrete base and the sides of his southern zinc bond, the same one which is approximately 20 feet away from my property. The numerous calls and reports to the Anna Regina Police Station since December 2007, followed by the occasional visits by police and their admission that they can do no more, prove the ineffectiveness of police intervention, and possibly the manager’s immunity.

Despite official authorisation by the Environmental Protection Agency (attested by attached documentation), the manager still has not relocated his cement and steel “bonds”, hence loading of the stated hardware products continues unabated in the southern bond, the area of contention.

The manager did move some of his operation to a northern bond, but it should be noted that frequently he reverts to storing both cement and steel rods in the southern bond, much to the peaceable destruction and the enjoyment of my property. Since the EPA can do no more than recommend, I suppose the manager’s unrelenting contravention of the environmental laws needs to be addressed by “the Minister” mentioned in the Environmental Protection Act. In terms of the involvement of the Police, it is evident that the routine of speaking to the manager following every report is futile. So, I shall wait with bated breath for a more legislatively cogent response from Mr. Greene or the aforementioned “Minister”.

Whether or not the sparse sale of a STIHL chainsaw or the music emanating from a small tape recorder in an enclosed building windward of my property, as reported by Mr. Greene, could have created a statutory noise nuisance, or even compared to the decibels from truckloads of steel rods crashing and slamming on a concrete base and the sides of the zinc bond is extremely questionable. Nevertheless, Commissioner Greene should heed that both those operations have long been terminated by me in an effort to dispel any flawed perceptions of hypocrisy.

The police at the Anna Regina Police Station can conduct a prolonged secretive operation to determine the decibel levels emanating from my property versus that from the manager’s enterprise and accurately report such to Mr. Greene for empirical determination of statutory noise nuisance or nuisance in general.

Sadly, of the seven paragraphs in Commissioner Greene’s letter, five were devoted to highlighting the account offered by the manager, with not one representing the account of me. Mr. Greene states that “During the subsistence of the contract, there was never a complaint from me of noise nuisance against Boohoo’s General Store”. To make such an assertive claim on basis of hearsay, obviously from the manager does little to construct a tone of impartiality. Not only have the manager and the proprietor been informed of contractual breaches during their occupation of my property, but they have been legally notified to vacate the premises. This is my account, but neither mine nor that of the manger can be considered objective.

As a final point of keeping both the Hon. Commissioner of Police and any other relevant authority apprised, I wish to report that I am now vacating my own property, at tremendous expense to relocate to the extreme back of my lot. That is, I am now bravely accepting millions of dollars in expenses simply to escape a scourge of noise nuisance and dust pollution from Boohoo’s General Store which remains potently immune from the law.

While I am literally shoving out of the enjoyment of my property to inhabit a less commodious one at great expense, Boohoo’s General Store under the control of the manager still plies its cement and steel rod trade out of the southern bond. It still pollutes with cement dust and crashing steel rods; it still contravenes all orders and stipulations.

This is the classic case of civilians having to “suck it up” and make way for unprincipled businesses and businessmen. Why should my family and I be forced to flee our ancestral ground while inconsiderate businessmen are allowed to continue their prosecutable activities? Why is there no enforcement beyond the anaemic?

This is my update for the Hon. Commissioner of Police and all other authorities tasked with ensuring justice and fair play for common citizens.

I wish to inform Mr. Henry Greene that I made a contribution for free and fair election after being in the wilderness for 28 years for a change of government. I was the first person in the history of Region 2 to overlook and take the military ballot box to Georgetown in September 28, 1992 while all the disturbances were going on with a view that the attitude of the police and some institutions would change their style.

I speak so because I spoke out (as I always do) on some corruption and wrong doings at some places of work.

Editor, as long as I am a citizen of this country, who fought for democracy, I will speak out when I see wrongs being committed and injustices towards people and my family.

Like A. Phillip Randolph, I too firmly believe that “A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”
MOHAMED KHAN
Former Deputy Mayor.