We will remedy neglect of Amerindians – Min. Sukhai tells National Assembly
Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai fiercely defended this year’s national budget, telling the National Assembly that all Amerindians across the regions stand to benefit from the slew of supportive measures it contains.
Contributing to the budget debate on Thursday, Minister Sukhai said the budget breathes life into all Amerindian communities.
“Under the Amerindian Development Fund, we can expect a number of things that will remedy that neglect and remedy that marginalisation and remedy the fact that we are delivering in a period when in the past five years, there was no delivery.”
A whopping $1.835 billion has been set aside under the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, for the Amerindian Development Fund.
In a fiery delivery, Minister Sukhai reminded that for years under the previous administration, the school uniform that Amerindian received from successive PPP/C Governments was arbitrarily halted.
Minister Sukhai further ripped into the opposition, upholding that as an election gimmick, bundles of cloth were sent to Amerindian villages to secure votes.
She explained that, “for three years under the APNU/AFC, no school uniform was delivered to the hinterland students, none whatsoever. I was campaigning in Paramakatoi at the time when the aircraft landed and if you see bags of uniform material coming for the first time just about four days before elections, that is how they treated indigenous students. And you have leaders from the other side of this house speaking about the PPP/Civic Government don’t care for these Guyanese.”
In contrast, the government returned a school uniform grant as one of the first measures since entering office in August 2020. In addition, the $4,000 for school uniform that was given in 2021 has been increased to $5,000.
This complements the increase in the ‘Because we Care’ cash grant from $15,000 to $25,000, meaning every student including those in the hinterland, will receive $30,000 per year.
Further, the Ministry of Agriculture in 2021, expended exorbitant sums in hinterland communities to strengthen their capacity to grow more.
The Amerindian Affairs Ministry also complemented those efforts by investing millions of dollars to purchase and deliver 112 tractors and trailers to communities across the country. And in 2022, the sum of $411 million has been budgeted to purchase 71 more tractors to improve village economies in the hinterland.
“That piece of machinery, Mr Speaker, is multi-purpose. They can use it for a number of activities; they can use it in forestry, they can use it for transportation, where they are taking bulk materials and supplies to the village. They can use it for maintaining roads, etc. Mr. Speaker, that is the vision of our government where we will give substantive support, make substantive intervention to the Amerindian villages so that they too can be able to progress and increase their opportunities of having a better life,” Minister Sukhai stated.
She extended an olive branch to the parliamentary opposition to work in tandem with the government, to ensure Guyana’s indigenous people are not left behind in development.
“This government is setting the foundation, and I want to say to you on the other side, you better get your act in order to contribute to development and not to continue to attempt to destroy this country.”