Essequibo : A team from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) held meetings with residents at Karrau Village on the Essequibo River and at Bartica.
The APNU team listened to villagers who shared a wide range of concerns including; Land title issues; demarcation of village lands; payment for State land leases; Clarification of statements made by Minister Norman Whitaker concerning payment of rent by Lease Holders to the Karrau Village council.
The Regional Chairman and Mr. Joseph Harmon urged the villagers and the village leaders to work together to find solutions to their many problems. Residents were encouraged to use their resources from Gold mining to diversify the economy of the village. The Regional Chairman also urged residents to return to the land (agriculture), so that the region could be self sufficient in food and to help bring down the high cost associated with food items.
At Bartica the APNU team encountered a very angry and highly emotional gathering of over 100 residents who were extremely upset with the manner in which the Ministry of Housing conducted a “One Stop Shop” (house-lot allocation) recently. At a meeting at the St. John the Baptists Primary School, over 75 persons who were granted approval letters by the Ministry of Housing complained that after waiting for several years many of them were denied the opportunity of owing a house-lot because of a flawed and broken system that demanded from many families excessive amounts of monies for a house-lot. Applicants after waiting for over eight hours were told in some cases that there were no more lots or that the only ones currently available were in the high –income bracket( $250,000 and up). Mr. Joseph Harmon, APNU’s Shadow Minister with responsibility for housing promised the residents that he would be seeking answers from the Minister of Housing regarding the many serious issues raised.
The APNU team accompanied by the Regional Chairman Bradford also inspected the road between Bartica Township and the Airport. The road is in a deplorable state. Residents have resorted to calling it “Abortion Alley”. As a major gateway to the interior the volume of traffic and the heavy trucks and other equipment that currently use the road have increased dramatically. It is clear from what we saw that the specifications currently used for surfacing that road needs to be changed to suit the type and frequency of traffic using the road.
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