“The Grinch come and he thief Christmas and the other holidays,” residents from Enmore and its environs proclaimed as the workers retrenched from the estate and their families begin to feel the squeeze.

Vibrant and busy are two of the words that residents of Enmore say are the first that come to mind when they are asked to describe their community. However, over the last few months, the residents say they are now being forced to change the way they describe and view their community as it is becoming a “ghost town.”

“When they had the estate running, even when the workers were in the backdam, you would see people up and down the road all the time. The shops would be filled with people doing their business, buses going to and fro. Now, hundreds of sugar workers are home but the streets are clear. You don’t have people coming out of their house and that shows the level of their discomfort,” community leader, Taajnauth Jadunauth told Stabroek News on Tuesday.

Despite it being just two weeks since the….