Six PPP councillors resign from Rosignol Neighbourhood Council

Last Updated on Tuesday, 9 March 2021, 14:26 by Denis Chabrol

Six People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) Councillors have resigned from the the Rosignol Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC).

The official reason given by several of the former councillors include “many unsettled issues”, being “frustrated and disappointed” and a “lack of cooperation from fellow councillors.”

PPP Executive Secretary, Zulfikar Mustapha is due to meet with the aggrieved councillors Tuesday afternoon, even as he believed that “I don’t think it is an issue that should cause a resignation.” He said he wanted to get a clear understanding of all of the issues involved.

No mention was made in the resignations about central government’s handling of a plan to remove vendors from the Rosignol Stelling Market, although some sources said that might be one of the underlying reasons.

The councillors, who submitted their resignations to the Overseer, are Iqbal Ally, Hainwatte Persaud, Joseph Tribhawan, Samuel Jagnandan, Chatte Puran and Agnes Karamchand.

That West Bank Berbice area is a stronghold of the governing PPP.

Efforts to reach Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall to ascertain how the resignations were being addressed were unsuccessful. The Overseer declined to comment, when contacted by phone.

APNU+AFC Councillor Christopher Wordsworth, however, says the councillors including three APNU+AFC representatives are all aggrieved by the instructions to remove the vendors from the Rosignol Stelling without notice and consultations.

There are 15 councillors on the NDC- 12 for the PPP and three for APNU+AFC.

The Council should have met Tuesday but only the APNU+AFC elected representatives showed up and one PPP councillor promised to attend.

The Chairman of the NDC declined to confirm any of the resignation while the former Market Chairperson, Hainwattie Persaud, confirmed the six resignations but declined to give further details.