Latest update January 18th, 2025 2:52 AM
The transportation system discriminates, says Health Minister
Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, said that in Guyana, minibuses and taxis discriminate against persons living with disabilities.
The Minister established that he was deliberately being as blunt as he could be, because the transport operators discriminate blatantly.
The Minister said that he would withdraw these comments when he had been presented with evidence that transportation operators ‘are not leaving people by the roadside.’ Minister Ramsammy went on to say that the discrimination was against the constitution.
The Minister noted that it is time that Guyana put provisions in place to penalize those people who deprive persons living with disabilities of their rights, which are the same as any other citizen of Guyana.
Describing Minister Ramsammy’s accusation as ‘an allegation,’ Nicholas Nnami, President of the Guyana Public Transportation Association (GPTA), said that when he heard the Minister’s charges, he refused to accept them.
Nnami told this reporter that he has never received any complaints of this sort before. He went on to say that there is no proof of any type of evidence to support the Minister’s claims.
Lylon Weithers, President of the General Minibus Association of Guyana (GMAG), when asked to comment on the Health Minister’s allegations, said that this was a generalization. He affirmed that while some operators do indeed discriminate against persons living with disabilities, the majority of operators do not.
Lauding the formation of a public transportation system, the Minister said that he would fight for as long as he is the Minister of Health, to ensure that special provisions are set up for people living with disabilities so that they can have either free of subsidized transportation.
Minister Ramsammy highlighted that the Ministry would begin to transport disabled persons who live in and around Georgetown, free of cost, if and when they need to go to the hospital on a regular basis.
“We will make arrangements to pick them up from their homes and take them to the clinic,” the Minister explained.
The Minister said that this service would be the start of addressing the transportation system for people living with disabilities, in Guyana.
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