RDC official markets mud from the main access dam — say Orenstein farmers

Oct 10, 2010 News

Chairman refutes claims of official involvement

Chatram Persaud, a rice farmer at Orenstein, East Bank Essequibo, has alleged that an official from the Good Hope Region Democratic Council has been marketing the mud removed from the main access dam.
Persaud stated that the mud is being removed from the surface. The farmer told Kaieteur News that he visited the said Council but was told that the councillors were not aware of such doings.

The farmer, Chatram Persaud on the damaged dam

He mentioned the fact that the dam is the sole responsibility of the rice farmers. They have to maintain it to aid in harvesting.
Milton Dookie, the Chairman of the Good Hope RDC, said that he was notified about the situation and that he has assigned officers to assess the damages that were done, but is very certain that it was not the act of any official at his Council.
He affirmed that it is not in the Council’s authority to permit such doings.
But a senior official at one of the RDCs in Region Three told this newspaper that the claims which are made by the farmers are factual.
The source explained that a person, who holds top offices at a particular RDC, is in the habit of selling the mud for the rice field dam to a city disposal service which will then market it for $7,000 a truck load.