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Government distributes 700 house lots on West Demerara
President Bharrat Jagdeo said, yesterday, that the local housing project is the best when compared to models in other countries. He also boasted that Government has distributed more than 12,000 house lots since it acceded to office in 1992.
Throngs of people arrived at the Ministry of Housing and Water yesterday morning for their allocations
He committed his government to distributing a further 17,000 over the next three years. Mr. Jagdeo made these remarks at the offices of the Ministry of Housing, Brickdam, where more than700 people received titles to house lots in the Parfait Harmonie Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara, yesterday morning.
Yesterday’s exercise was the third of its kind following similar exercises in Region Three and Region Six.
The Head of State said that Government has spent an estimated $6 billion to date in a housing project that was undoubtedly, the best in the world.
“This country has enough land for all of its citizens,” the President declared. He said that the issue was not only about the acquisition of land but also about location.
“There is land in other regions but for some inexplicable reason citizens prefer to occupy land on the coastline,” Mr. Jagdeo observed. He added that in other developed countries residents have to travel for over four hours, each day, to get to work. “Guyanese complain that the land that we are allocating is too far away from town life,” the President said.
He urged the new recipients to take advantage of the opportunity since the government has huge plans for the development of the Parfait Harmony Housing Scheme. “There are about 13,000 house lots in this scheme and very soon we plan to undertake projects that
would install modern amenities,” assure Mr. Jagdeo.
Mr. Jagdeo said that the allocation process also aims to foster unity among Guyanese of different ethnic orientations. He said that there has been a break away from the categorization of a single ethnic group in any particular community.
“In the past we have had communities comprising of single races so we found that there was minimum understanding of the different cultures,” Mr. Jagdeo pointed out. He said that the current idea is to create an ethnic mix in the different communities to foster ethnic harmony. “We want to make sure that our communities develop greater harmony; this is the foundation of our plans,” Jagdeo said.
The President subsequently allayed the fears of the awardees who are contemplating approaching the banks for loans to build their homes. “I have assured these lending institutions that provided they facilitate loans to residents of low income communities, we will waive the interest on these loans.”
He lauded the efforts of the New Building Society (NBS) which he said is currently offering loans at a much lower rate of interest that most other lending institutions. “We have undertaken an aggressive building plan and I am pleased that the NBS has agreed to be a part of these plans. Borrowing is now easy,” Mr. Jagdeo proclaimed.
Earlier, Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, told those that were allotted house lots to use the opportunity to build their dream houses.
Several other officials from the Ministry of Housing and Water were also at the forum. Minutes after Mr. Jagdeo’s presentation, the allocation process got underway.
(Michael Benjamin)
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