Govt outreach welcomed, issues resolved – Belle West resident
DPI, Guyana, Monday, April 29, 2019
Mohammed Rasheed, a resident of Belle West, West Bank Demerara, has commended the government for taking the outreach programme to Region 3 and for its welcoming approach.
Rasheed, a large-scale farmer and former Chairman of a Community Policing Group (CPG), took several issues to Sunday’s outreach at the National Track and Field Centre, Edinburgh. “I am looking for a government who can develop a country… I will support that government. I was very impressed with the outreach, I got a warm welcome, and my issues were looked at right away,” he said after raising a drainage and irrigation issue.
Rasheed is involved in fish and cash crop farming and has been facing serious issues with drainage and irrigation. He decided to take his grievances to the Ministry of Agriculture booth.
Rasheed said that his issues were resolved within a short space of time. “The guys were there saying don’t go so, come here, send in your machine immediately, work will be done… action right away.”
The farmer also noted that he had written President David Granger about an all-weather road to access the farmland area, and the president replied saying he would forward the issue to Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.
Rasheed met Minister Patterson on Sunday and was assured that the road will be done at the shortest possible date. “Minister Patterson give me the assurance that the road will be done, and I feel good about that.”
Further, he also had another issue regarding the birth certificate of a Venezuelan child he had adopted. “The child doesn’t have a birth certificate. We had a lot of running around. I went to Ministry of Citizenship, they couldn’t handle it and I went to Social Protection and right away I was assisted, and I felt good,” he told the Department of Public Information (DPI).
Following the exercise at the National Track and Field Centre, ministers fanned out to various communities. Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan and Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock were in the Belle West area where they interacted with close to 100 residents including Rasheed at the Belle West Primary School. He was the first to raise issues of security in the area.
He said there is a need for more cooperation between the residents and the Guyana Police Force [GPF] because, “We are on the ground, we know the criminals.”
Minister Ramjattan immediately asked the commander to foster a better relationship with the resident.
“This is the way we have to communicate with government,” Rasheed added, “they are servants to us the people, we are the grassroots people. I travel this world and see how people cooperate, nothing about race and politics, but development and that is how it should be here.”
Synieka Thorne
Images: Keno George and Marceano Narine