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Kaieteur News
Tuesday December 11, 2012
Grove/Diamond NDC gets new building - Gov’t/ PNCR in court over ownership
Grove/ Diamond NDC gets new building Even as the legal matter over the ownership of the Grove/ Diamond Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) is pending, Government has reconstructed the facility as part of the Ministry of Housing’s Community Road Improvement Project (CRIP). General Secretary of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Oscar Clarke, and Region Four Chairman, Clement Corlette, are clueless about the state of the legal proceedings even though it
was the PNCR that took Government to court over the ownership of the building last year. The conflict between PNCR and Government erupted last year, months before the National Elections were held. The top flat of the building would have housed the campaign office of the PNCR while the NDC office was located at the bottom flat. The PNCR had reportedly argued that they have been using the building as a meeting place and as an area
elections campaign command office for years. According to Attorney General Anil Nandlall, the PNCR was squatting in the building and had to be removed. He noted that Government ejected the PNCR and the case is currently pending. However, no injunction has been filed to prevent Government from carrying out works on the building. As such, Government was able to move ahead with reconstructing the NDC
The old Grove/ Diamond NDC building building as an obligation under the CRIP, which is funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). While the building is being reconstructed operations of the NDC are being conducted at Diamond Community Centre Ground building, East Bank Demerara (EBD). According to the NDC’s Overseer, construction of the
building is completed but landscaping works remain. It was noted that the Ministry of Housing has to officially handover the 40-foot by 25foot structure to the NDC. The overseer said that he was recently appointed and is unaware of certain details of the project. Construction works to the building began mid-year. It is anticipated that
by early next year the operations of the NDC will be relocated to the new building. The staff also related that construction works to roads in the old Grove Housing Scheme are being executed under CRIP. In fact, when the ownership of the NDC building erupted necessary road development works in Grove were stalled.
This destitute, according to vendors at Merriman Mall, was lying on the corner for hours as members of the health sector failed to render him assistance. They said that around 8:30 yesterday morning, the man, who seemed sickly, was heading along north on Alexander Street when he collapsed on the roadway. The man, they said, starting frothing at the mouth and appeared to be in excruciating pain. A crowd then gathered, hampering vehicular traffic for some time. Despite numerous calls to the Georgetown Public Hospital no one came to the sick man’s attention. Attempts were also made to contact the police but nothing materialized. The vendors said they were repeatedly told by the hospital that there were no vehicles available. When Kaieteur News arrived at the location around 14:30 hours, the destitute was still lying on
the roadway. He was hardly moving, and even when he did, he made it look difficult to do so. Calls to the city hospital by Kaieteur News were
answered with excuses of unavailability of rescue vehicles. The dispatcher said, “Madam if we have no vehicles, I cannot send what we don’t have.”
No ambulance: Walk or creep to the hospital
Road fatalities down The Guyana Police Force (GPF) in a release, yesterday, announced a welcoming nine per cent reduction in road fatalities by the end of November, with 98 casualties compared to 108 last year. Moreover, there continues to be reduction in the other categories of traffic accidents as well. Pedestrians are the main
road users that are affected with 29 such persons having lost their lives on the roads, in addition to 17 pedal cyclists, 14 motor cyclists and 20 drivers of motor vehicles up to November this year. According to the report, speeding continues to be a major contributing factor to fatal accidents. Speed caused 70 of the 90
fatal accidents up to N o v e m b e r. Tr a ff i c enforcement by the police has resulted in a total of 63,439 cases being made against errant motorists of which 13,664 cases were for speeding. An additional five road fatalities have been recorded so far for the month of December 2012.