A clothes and handbag vendor of the Skeldon Market in Region Six (East Berbice/ Corentyne) is contemplating her next move after the Corriverton Municipality has refused to compensate her for the damage caused to her goods by tar and water.
Pulmattie Annand, who operates 10 stalls at the market, which is run by the Corriverton Municipality, says she was told that tar had leaked from the gutter in the ceiling and fallen onto one of her stands.
“When I opened the stand, there was a lot of water and tar on the footwear,” the 37-year-old woman revealed.
Annand, who sells ladies’ and gents’ footwear, school bags, suitcases and travelling bags, has been venting in that market for the past 15 years. She said that following the discovery last Thursday, she went to the Mayor’s Office, but was told that the Council cannot compensate her for the damages.
“He told me to take what action I want to take, so I went and lodged a complaint with the Market Clerk,” the woman related, adding that her damages amounted to some $489,000.
Meanwhile, the contractor, who was at the time undertaking repair works to the roof of the market, explained that the guttering was faulty.
“The gutter is not good; it has holes, so they asked me to put tar in it and put a new gutter inside the old one…,” he told the media.
Several vendors have reported that when it rains, their stalls are drenched. Annand said it was not the first time that items in her stall have been affected, but she said this is the first time that she had suffered such severe damages.
