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Tuesday April 20 , 2021

President Ali swears in PUC

APNU+AFC MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FAN-OUT EXERCISE IN REGION FIVE

MINIBUS CONDUCTOR FINED $80,000 FOR LOUD MUSIC

Guyana Post Tuesday April 20, 2021

President Ali swears in PUC

President, Mohamed Irfaan Ali on the verge of swearing in the four Commissioner to the Public Utilities Commission has touted that more has been done in the past few years to improve the services from utility companies that in the past and the Commission is more efficient under his watch and as such, this

is expected to continue with a new face of the board.

President Ali, this morning, administered the Oath of Office to Dr. Nanda Gopaul at the Office of the President.

Dr. Gopaul joins Chairperson Dela Britton and three other Commissioners Dr. Leyland Lucas, Ms. Verlyn Klass, and Mr.

Rajendra Bisessar on the PUC Board.

Dr. Gopaul is also expected to carry out the duties as a Commissioner for the next three years.

Dr. Gopaul was reportedly chosen by Prime Minister, Mark Phillips because of the knowledge in the area and the type of service he brings.

That great service

APNU+AFC MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FAN-OUT EXERCISE IN REGION FIVE

Sunday was a redletter day in Region Five for the Coalition. Its Members of Parliament, led by the Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon, and included Khemraj Ramjattan conducted outreaches to 19 communities.

The group met with people from Ithaca, West Coast Berbice, to High Dam, Mahaicony.

All these meetings were well attended. The views and concerns of the community were unapologetically aired.

Some called on the installed government of the day to respect the Constitution and to abide by law and order and demonstrate good governance.

At each of these meetings, the Members

of Parliament distributed tablets to young children, and agricultural seeds for self-sufficiency, among other things.

The residents also pointed out that all Guyanese must benefit from the COVID-19 cash grant.

The distribution must not reflect discrimination, they said. This must come to an end

according to President Ali should become an addition to the works that have already started in the past few years.

“We could determine how effective we are in the exercise of our duty by examining the level of service consumer receive today, by examining the work we have done over the last few years to protect the

interest of the consumer and ensure such quality that is expected to be given to the consumer are given and that they receive what they pay for.” President Ali noted.

The PUC is tasked to regulate, investigate and have enforcement under the PUC Act, by the Guyana Energy Agency Act, the Electricity Reform Act, and the Telecommunication Act. This function allows the commission to make rules that govern the utility sector, the commission is also mandated to be the judge of the rate the company charges, services, the scrutinized any program introduced by companies with the interest of the consumer and investor at heart.

Standing on such a note, President Ali emphasized that with the mandate on the PUC set out, the Government will work to supports its effort to

improve the quality of public service, Guyana enters a new phase in its development and consumer can have better service from the utility company.

“The government is committed to supporting the work of the PUC, as it is to expanding and improving the quality of public services provided to citizens. The work of the PUC is expected to intensify; as Guyana enters its new phase of development, which we have already witnessed the liberalization of the telecommunication sector and plans are ahead for power generation and water supply” President Ali added The PUC is tasked with regulating utilities and service providers including GTT, Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Guyana Water Inc. (GWI), and Digicel, most of which is stateowned

MINIBUS CONDUCTOR FINED $80,000 FOR LOUD MUSIC

Days after a minibus driver, who was caught in a video assaulting a passenger seeking to have him lower his music, he was today fined $80,000 on several different charges. He admitted to them.

The defendant, Josh Harry, of 28 of Back Road, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, appeared before Magistrate Clive Nurse in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court and chose to not waste the court’s time.

Harry admitted that on April 12, 2021, at Houston Public Road,

Greater Georgetown, he breached the condition of the road service license.

Harry further made loud, and continuous noise.

At the same time, he had no bus conductor, and also he failed as a driver to conduct himself in a proper manner.

Harry was fined $80,000 or in default to spend 16 weeks in prison for the offenses he committed.

Reports are that on the day in question, Harry was the driver of minibus BYY 8024. At the time he was proceeding north along Houston Public Road, when a passenger of the bus, 47-year-old, Odila Peroune, of Pearl, East Bank Demerara, complained to the driver since the bus had no conductor, of loud, continuous noise which was becoming a nuisance.

Harry, who became

annoyed, stopped his bus in a rash manner, approached the passenger, and snatched her cell phone out of her hand.

In the process of doing so, he hit her on her mouth, causing his conduct as a driver of public transportation, to be inappropriate.

The matter was later reported and investigations were carried out. It was during that time that a licensing certifying officer searched the bus and discovered the following: 2 6 inch Faital Pro Speakers, 2 8-inch Faital Pro Speakers, a 1000watt power amplifier, and an Audiopipe, all instruments of music that were not authorized by the prescribed authority.

Harry was later arrested and charged for the offenses. Harry also will be charged for assault at a later date.

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CDC ISSUES LEVEL 4 WARNING AGAINST TRAVELING TO GUYANA

US citizens are being warned against traveling to Guyana. The latest travel advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention placed

Guyana at “Level 4” or “At a very high level of COVID-19 in Guyana.”

Travelers are being told they “should avoid all travel to Guyana.”

“Because of the

current situation in Guyana even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel

to Guyana.”

The advisory also advises that if persons must travel to Guyana they should get fully vaccinated before travel.

“All travellers should wear a mask, stay six feet from others, avoid crowds, and wash their hands,” the advisory reads.

There are more

than 11,000 confirmed cases in Guyana. As of Sunday, some 101 new cases have been recorded. Guyana has also recorded 273 deaths.

Volcano devastates St Vincent, Guyana rushes to help an ally

Adam’s Note Book

St Vincent and the Grenadines is all but wiped out. La Soufriere volcano erupted toward the end of last week and sent thousands of people fleeing the island.

Weeks before, the island was warned that the eruption was imminent.

The extent of the eruption was undetermined.

When the eruption came the government had already taken steps to remove the people who lived close to the volcano.

And with good reason because on Monday, the last eruption was so huge that it killed whatever existed there. Fortunately, there have been no reports of human fatality.

St Vincent is a small island with a population of just over 110,000. Of that number, many are info@guyanapostonline.com

Guyanese—some 4,000– who being the migrating people they are, left to go live on that island.

The island population is smaller than the population of Georgetown—perhaps the size of Kitty and Campbellville.

The St Vincent government sent out appeals to neighbouring countries for help with accommodation.

Even those islands that are equally small have been approached to help take in people. But for how long can they accommodate the displaced people of St Vincent?

These displaced people have to be fed and housed.

Yet not one country declined the approach for help. At last count, about 20,000 people had to be

accommodated, some with relatives and friends on the island. Cruise ships that can accommodate as many as 5,000 people have been deployed to the island.

Prime Minister of the island, Ralph Gonsalves, meanwhile, has put out calls for food, equipment and just about anything that people would need in the face of the disaster.

Supplies have begun to pour into the island and these have to be stored.

Perhaps they would be redistributed to those locations and countries that are housing the displaced St Vincentians.

When the earthquake hit Haiti way back in 2010 the devastation was unimaginable.

Countries raced to provide

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emergency supplies to the extent that boats and planes transporting those supplies had to be turned back. The ports were full as were the airports.

St Vincent does not have any port as big as those that exist on Haiti.

One can imagine the likely pile up unless there is a massive coordination effort.

Some people discussing the situation said that the volcano could not have come at a better time to save Ralph Gonsalves.

A few days before the eruption, he announced that his government would have had a hard time providing salaries for public servants.

That in itself would have provided hardships for the residents. Heaven knows what the reaction to the Gonsalves Government would have been.

Gonsalves can be assured of massive support from Guyana. In the wake of the March 2, 2020 elections he came out boldly to advise David Granger to take his licks like a man.

For that, the Irfaan Ali government is extremely grateful. No amount of support would ever be too much on the part of Guyana.

And while Guyana is racing to provide support to the stricken island, Barbados, which has also been carded to provide support, has been affected by the volcano. Slightly more than 110 miles separate the two countries.

According to reports, ash from the volcano began to blanket parts of Barbados. The southern side of the island was reduced to perpetual night. The plume from La Soufriere blotted out the sun. But the ash on the streets and the houses is the most inconveniencing.

Yet that cannot be too bad. The reality has hit home when one realizes that water is now priceless.

Almost all the drinking water on the island has been contaminated. So cooking has become something of a luxury.

In Guyana, COVID-19 has kept our children out of school. In St Vincent,

while there is COVID, there is now the volcano.

That is called a double whammy. The people must be wondering whether the end of the world is nigh because it is not often that disasters of those magnitudes would hit people like that.

That is why people always say that Guyana is a blessed country.

There are no hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Yet for all that, countries afflicted by those disasters often rebound to rebuild their economies to levels that surpass Guyana’s.

The harsh reality is that Guyana has politicians whose combined efforts appear to be worse than the earthquakes, the volcanoes, and the hurricanes.

People ask why this is. The answer lies in the fact that there is so much hate among the politicians that they do not have time to think about national development. They just think about destroying each other and whatever comes in between.

28 COVID victims die in last two weeks

Twenty-eight Guyanese have succumbed to COVID-19 so far for this month. Four people died over the past 24 hours.

Yesterday alone after the earlier announcement of two deaths, the Ministry

of Health reported two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) died. This takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic to 262.

The latest fatalities are

two males, a 76-yearold from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and an 86-year- old male from Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice). They both died while receiving care at our medical facility.

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