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Relocation Cummings P
THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM Relocation underway for Cummings Lodge squatters
Workers at the Cummings Lodge, ECD site where 190 low-income homes are under construction
The remaining 11 squatters occupying portions of plots 1767 and 1768 Cummings Lodge (Cummings Park), East Coast Demerara are in the process of being relocated, as the Housing Ministry embarks on a new housing project in the area.
On Wednesday, Housing Minister Collin Croal and Chief Executive Officer of CH&PA, Sherwyn Greaves, along with Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Brutus, Deputy Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken and Regional Commander of “4A” Division, Simon Mc Bean, visited the area which is earmarked for a new housing project.
Croal, during the visit, noted that the illegal activity would severely hamper development, as some 190 low-income homes are to be built there for low-income families.
“We have been working with persons squatting in this area since August last year, and a number of unoccupied structures have been demolished since then. However, the eleven structures remaining are those that were found to have occupants. They were served notices to remove, and we have had our Community Development Department working with them,” Croal said on Wednesday, adding that the squatters have received their final contravention notices, and assistance is being provided to remove them immediately.
Croal added that the visit with the high-ranking officials from the Guyana Police Force is to enhance security in the area, given the magnitude of the development. Discussions with the officials has pointed to an outpost being placed towards the Aubrey Barker end of the project.
The notices served require the informal settlers to be removed by Saturday, April 10, 2021. CH&PA is currently in the process of relocating the squatters to a suitable area within the vicinity.
According to the Ministry, initial reports noted that 13 contravention notices were served on 13 structures observed by CH&PA on August 20, 2021. By August 27, 2020 22 structures were then observed, and a demolition exercise was conducted on October 13, 2020, leaving 11 occupied structures. A number of call-in notices were also served, and six of the informal settlers have since approached CH&PA. The final contravention notice was served on April 3, 2021.
Based on interaction with the squatters, eight have applications within the CH&PA system, while another three are in the process of formally applying to facilitate the relocation process.
Back in November 2020, President Dr Irfaan Ali had announced that land clearing works were started for new housing schemes at Mon Repos and Cummings Lodge. He noted that the Government’s housing programme would create tens of thousands of jobs in the construction and home improvement sectors.
Moreover, the construction sector would be key to driving growth in Guyana’s non-oil sectors.
As part of the PPP/C Government’s plan to make available over 50,000 house lots over the next five years to citizens, the Housing Ministry had commenced steps to access 6356 acres of lands to help satisfy this demand.
In addition to other areas, the lands were being sought between Golden Grove and Peters Hall on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), and between Ogle to Cummings Lodge on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), for the development of additional housing schemes.
With a budgetary allocation of $6 billion for housing, Government has said the establishment of a Diaspora Housing Fund is being considered. The Head of State had also revealed that Government was looking at other areas of securing financing for the housing sector. Those include efforts to raise some US$250 million for housing projects.
Housing Minister Collin Croal and Chief Executive Officer of CH&PA, Sherwyn Greaves, along with Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Brutus; Deputy Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken, and Regional Commander of “4A” Division, Simon Mc Bean, during a visit to the area on Wednesday
COVID-19 vaccines are safe, whether people get them in a hospital, church, mandir, masjid – Ramsammy
There are more than drive occurred at a spe100 fixed-site vac- cific church, or madir or cination centres in masjid. The Swami knows Guyana where people can this well. Our people are get their COVID-19 vac- among the world's most cines. These sites are open tolerant of each other's reevery day. There are also ligion, and we share relisome outreach sites which gious events and each othindividuals and groups er's space for many, many have organized; those decades. I have been honsites are temporary, usu- oured and privileged for ally lasting for a day. decades working in soli-
There are three condi- darity with our religious tions for the MOH to send leaders. Every day, I sit teams to these sites; first: with these leaders in the the number of persons to same room in various combe vaccinated must make Dr Leslie Ramsammy munities, and we work tosense for the Ministry to gether without any animossend a dedicated team for a day; second: ity or tension. The vaccine is important to residents in the community are not pre- people, not at which site they get it. vented from getting vaccines on the basis CIOG, Dharmic Sabha, the of religion, politics, or any other factor; Presbyterian Church, and many pastors and third: the persons meet the eligibil- have worked with us so far. Yesterday, ity requirements. the Canefield/Enterprise NDC hosted a
At the moment, the eligibility is based vaccination day. The NDC councillors, only on age - 40 years and older. the imams, pandits and pastors got to-
With due respect to Swami gether and organised the event. The origAksharananda, I believe that his letter, inal suggestion from the community was that the event be held at a recreational centre across the NDC, but the technical persons suggested that it was too small to accommodate the number of persons that were expected. The recommendation among the community persons was that the ideal place was the Dharmic Veda Centre. Almost two hundred persons were vaccinated yesterday at that centre - they were Christians, Hindus and Minister Anthony receiving his vaccine on Tuesday Muslims. The site did not matter, what matpublished in the newspaper, is unfor- tered was these persons had an opportutunate and misrepresent the facts. The nity to get a vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines are being admin- Two weeks ago, the NDC at Success istered to persons resident in Guyana organised a similar outreach. They chose across the country, every person. the masjid at Success as the most suit-
As stated before, there are more able site. Two weeks ago also, the CIOG than one hundred (100) fixed-site places hosted a vaccination event for the resi(where) vaccines are being administered dents of North Georgetown. Most of the on a daily basis at this time. All of these people were not Muslims. The Dharmic fixed sites are Government health cen- Sabha's Kendra Centre hosted a vaccinatres or hospitals. None of the fixed sites tion outreach last Saturday. Many perare in any private facility or any masjid, sons were from different religious backor any mandir or any church. grounds. The #52-#74 NDC has organised
The MOH has urged faith leaders, po- a vaccination outreach. I met them yeslitical leaders, NGOs, businesses etc. to terday, brothers and sisters who were help mobilise persons for vaccination. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, working toMostly, community leaders have come to- gether to ensure that those 40 years and gether to organise persons within their older in their community are fully vaccicommunities. Sometimes they mobilise nated. They chose a Christian church as persons at a school, other times at a mas- the most suitable venue. jid, other times in a mandir, and still oth- At this time, we need all hands on er times in a Christian church. At none of board. It is unfortunate that religion has these sites are persons vaccinated on the crept in to the process we have developed basis of religion. I have personally been in the rolling out of the vaccine. at many of these sites. I will continue to I hope the Swami, on second thought, visit these sites. To vaccinate people, we would see that far from favouring one will go wherever we are invited. group or another, we are trying to reach
What we will not do is a vaccination everyone. I invite him to join us in ensurexercise where vaccines are provided only ing that persons who reach the eligibility for a specific group, based on religion or (requirement) come forward to get their politics or some other factor. vaccines.
This model has been used before, The vaccines provided from the for blood drives, where we have gone Government’s fixed sites are not betto churches, madirs, masjids. and the ter than the vaccines at outreach sites blood drives were never restricted to - whether these are schools, a business persons of only one religion, even if the place, a masjid, a mandir or a church.
THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM CJ to rule on APNU/AFC election petition on April 26
– GECOM asks court to throw out case
Chief Justice Roxane George on Wednesday heard oral arguments in the APNU+AFC lone election petition left standing, and has set April 26 to hand down her ruling.
But this was not before the Guyana Elections Commission, through its lawyer, Dominican Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan, asked the High Court to throw out the petition, insisting that it did nothing wrong by conducting the National Recount using Order 60 of 2020 – which was used to carry out the recount exercise – following the “difficulties” GECOM was experiencing.
“Our primary case, My Lady… is that there is no breach [of the Constitution] …We stand by our written submissions, fully and absolutely, that there was no breach… We’re not conceding any breach at all,” Astaphan contended during Wednesday’s virtual hearing.
He dismissed the argument of petitioners Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick that Order 60, otherwise known as the Recount Order, is invalid, null, void, and of no effect.
Order 60 was created pursuant to Section 22 of the Elections Laws (Amendment) Act and Article 162 of the Constitution of Guyana to resolve irregularities, anomalies, and discrepancies coming out of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, and to determine a final credible count before declaring the results of the elections, which are required by the Representation of the People Act and the Constitution.
Thorne and Bostwick argue that Order 60 and Section 22 are unconstitutional, and as such, the August 2, 2020 declaration of the results from the recount, which led to a win for the Irfaan Ali-led People’s Progressive Party/Civic, should be vitiated since there was total non-compliance with the law regarding the conduct of elections.
But the GECOM lawyer maintained that there is nothing unconstitutional about Order 60 or Section 22, as is being contended by the petitioners – a position which was also held by Trinidadian Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, representing Representative of the PPP/C List of Candidates, then Opposition Leader and current Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, and Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC representing the State.
SC Astaphan insisted that Order 60 was entirely consistent with Section 22 and Article 162, and was not only “transparent” and “enacted in good faith”, but was intended to remove the difficulties that prevented GECOM from declaring the final results of the March 2, 2020 election, which was at the time being stalled for several months.
“In the face of these difficulties, what was GECOM to do? What should GECOM have done with the intransigence of the Returning Officer and the Chief Election Officer, and the difficulty to get cooperation for resolution of the matter. GECOM… was literally, by the Constitution and statue, obliged to act, otherwise chaos would have resulted,” the Dominican Senior Counsel contended.
Astaphan went on to reject the claim by the petitioners’ lawyer, Trinidadian Senior Counsel John Jeremie, that there were no guidelines under Section 22 and 162 for the recount to be conducted.
He argued that, “GECOM could only possibly act under [Section] 22 if there was a difficulty being experienced in the course of the election, which includes, of course, the count and the recount, and the request for recount. If there was intransigence on behalf of election officers or otherwise, that creates a difficulty for the final declaration to be made. Under Section 22, GECOM literally has a mandatory obligation to act, cause it says “shall”, if these things appear to it as necessary or expedient for it to remove the difficulty.”
Moreover, the Dominican Senior Counsel pointed out that Section 162 (1) foresaw the possibilities of intransigence, misconduct and disobedience from public officers or persons performing elections duties that would prevent either compliance or would prevent the final process of the election to be declared.
He maintained that if these provisions did not exist, then GECOM could not have acted in the manner it did; but since they do exist, the Commission had a “constitutional obligation” to act.
Further, SC Astaphan outlined that even the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had gratified, whether expressly or indirectly, the lawfulness of Order 60 for the purpose of removing the difficulties, which he said were “slowly but surely driving Guyana into a severe social and political upheaval.”
While the petitioners argued that CCJ did not explicitly consider the constitutionality of Order 60 and Section 22, GECOM’s lawyer contended that had there been any issues, then Guyana’s apex court would have mentioned it and would not have gone “literally out of its way to give the stamp of approval to the recount and to Order 60.”
A similar point, among a host of others, was submitted by SC Mendes during his arguments at Wednesday’s hearing. He added that there were no objections to Order 60 being used to effect the recount, and in fact, all the political parties, including the APNU+AFC, had participated fully in the exercise.
