NIS contributors to begin receiving cheques in matter of months – Dr Jagdeo

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic government has once again proven its intent to cater all of its people. In two months time, some NIS contributors are set to receive a portion of their contributions from over the years.

General Secretary of the Party and Guyana’s Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday revealed that a section of Guyanese, who may not have qualified for pension are set to benefit substantially from the multibillion dollar budgetary allocation.

“We have just put in the budget $10 billion dollars that will give every NIS contributor between 500 contributions and 749, who didn’t qualify to get a pension, from the 1970s to now, they will now get a cheque in two months and it will be a substantial sum of money.”

This budgetary allocation alone, according to Dr Jagdeo is set to be of great assistance to thousands of Guyanese so that they can “get back some of the contribution that they made to NIS that they did not get all these years because they didn’t qualify for pension.”

Dr Jagdeo indicated that the government is working tirelessly to fix the problems that Berbicians have had with NIS

Providing solutions and giving resources to tackle problems

The PPP/C government has proven its resilience and ability to accurately provide solutions for problems that the Guyanese people face. It was Dr Jagdeo, who highlighted that the party and his government continues to provide solutions and even noted that they welcome the complaints of citizens as those complaints allow the government to keep systems in check.

He stated that antagonistic elements would often try to purport a notion that the complaints of citizens equate to a criticism of the government.

“When some people go to the community meetings [to say] there is a problem, [some people] say [that citizens] are complaining about the government. We encourage that. It helps us to solve problems because we are the only party that will actually come up with a solution,” the General Secretary said while speaking at his party’s press conference at Freedom House.

Dr Jagdeo’s statements were made as a response to claims that community meetings that are held around the country are being met with fierce criticisms from residents.

He clarified that residents were raising concerns about the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) branch in Berbice, saying, “People complained about NIS. [At] every one of our meetings, we speak and then I say that ‘I will listen. I am here now,’ and so they complained about NIS.”

Over the weekend, the vice president met with residents of Berbice, where he noted that they registered various concerns

“No, other government or any political party has ever gone to the community with a solution or at least looked at people’s problem,” Dr Jagdeo reminded

“They complained about the drainage. I explained to them that we have done a lot of work in drainage, roads, etc. Their problem was some community drains. In this year’s budget, we already sent up into Berbice, [which by the way] has 22 local government bodies that contested the last elections. [All]  22 [has] received an excavator. This year the subvention has gone from $5 million to $20 million to assist with the cemeteries, the internal drains and garbage collection,” the GS mentioned.

Dr Jagdeo also disclosed that “We are buying compactors for all the towns in the country. So when they complain about garbage or [that] the cemetery is overgrown like the people in Berbice did, we are providing solutions and giving them more resources to tackle the problem.”

The VP also explained that he reminded the people of Berbice that all of their roads have been transformed or  will see transformation in the near future. He said that he touched on other sectors as well, like the fact that there is $10 billion being spent in agriculture.

“I spoke of the diversification, job opportunity for people that, apart from rehiring the over 2000 sugar workers that were laid off, we have now hired another 4,800 part time workers and through other government programmes, maybe 10,000 people just on government alone are working in Berbice who were not working in 2020,” he underscored

He revealed the Government’s plan to modernise agriculture in the region.

“We spoke of expanding, not just converting GUYSUCO, but right now we are working on taking 62,000 acres of land into an agro industrial complex  in the Skeldon area from Moleson Creek all the way to Skeldon that includes hemp and tobacco and some cane and a whole range of orchard crops that will make that an agricultural hub.”

Dr Jagdeo stated that, “These are programs that we are already investing in that people will see the benefits of in the future. So which political party has been able to do this or any other aspirant with that amount of detail?”