Ministers to work closely with Reg. 10 admin.
─ addressing issues affecting residents
─ Ministers fan out in Linden to meet the public
– govt on a series of countrywide outreaches to ascertain the conditions under which people live and get a view on matters which affect them
– ensuring citizens benefiting from the good life promised
– “I realised that some of our regional systems are not working as efficiently as they should… the challenge is that so many of these communities were neglected for decades that we are now playing catch up” – Min. Hughes
– “We want to assure citizens that your govt is working for you to address issues you are confronted with” – Min. Ferguson
DPI, Guyana, Saturday, February 2, 2019
A team of government ministers visited the mining town of Linden on Saturday, February 2, to meet the residents and listen to their issues in an effort to have them addressed.
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes and Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson met residents in the Wismar communities of One Mile, Half Mile, Silvertown and Green Valley among others.
Residents seized the opportunity to highlight their challenges to the government ministers.
The residents of these areas collectively indicated that they would like to see more job opportunities for young people while they also need more direct access to government services.
More importantly, they told the ministers that they wished to be apprised of the beneficial programmes and projects slated for the area.
With the information received, the two ministers committed to fostering closer collaborations with regional and municipal officials to improve the quality of life of citizens.
“The more and more I walked around I realised that some of our regional systems are not working as efficiently as they should and this, of course, I think is because we don’t have a history of Local Government Elections, so it’s a slow process, but we got a lot of positives. We saw a lot of people doing amazing things,” Minister Hughes said.
“What we at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will be doing is working closely with the region and more so the town council to see how best we can collaborate to bring about some of these changes that the community would want to see,” Minister Ferguson noted.
The Infrastructure Minister heard specifically of issues related roads and to some extent drainage in some areas.
“The people were very happy to see us, and the request of the people is that we need to see more of you, come into our areas find out what are some of our issues… The Ministry of Public Infrastructure has scheduled, in our 2019 Budget, some roads to be done in Region 10. We just want to assure the residents of this region that your government is working for you to address issues you are confronted with,” Minister Ferguson said.
The residents were reassured of the goal of the APNU+AFC government, which is to provide the good life for all Guyanese.
“We know that things are happening but of course there is an urgency in communities to see more done and so I spent a lot of time trying to explain that a lot has been done but even more needs to be done and so the challenge is always to say to people that we are working, there are things that you are seeing that we have done and together we are working to get even more things done… The challenge is that so many of these communities were neglected for decades that we are now playing catch up,” Minister Hughes explained.
Delicia Haynes
Images: Marceano Naraine