Sukhai neglects welfare of Coomacka residents - charges APNU

Sukhai neglects welfare of Coomacka residents – charges APNU

Jun 03, 2014 News

A Partnership for National Unity Parliamentarian, Renis Morian, has lashed out at the Minister of Amerindian affairs, Pauline Sukhai, for neglecting to look into the welfare of the ‘indigenous’ people of Coomacka and its environs, and by extension the entire Region Ten.
“Imagine in this day and age the people at Coomacka, Three Friends Mines, Old England and these other communities are still drinking raw river water because there is no potable water.

Minister of Amerindian affairs, Pauline Sukhai

“There are no telephone landlines and children are suffering because there is no proper system in place to guarantee their commute to and from school.”
Morian said out that prior to the last elections,”through an elections gimmick,” a bus was acquired to enable the children easy commute to and from school, but after the elections were over, “they don’t have time with anybody, so presently the bus is sitting here just deteriorating while the children suffer for transportation. The life of this bus was very short because it was placed in the hands of people who were just looking for a hustle.”
According to Morian no attention was paid to the proper management or maintenance of the vehicle, hence its premature ‘demise’
“What is the Minister of Amerindian Affairs doing about this? Maybe this bus could be rehabilitated. Why it was allowed to deteriorate to this state in the first place; and further where is the engine?
“No ordinary person could have taken the engine out of this bus. It had to be someone in an official capacity, so we need to know what happened with the engine.
The bus in question presently sits in the vicinity of the burnt out Linmine offices on Casaurina Drive, adding to the general atmosphere of dereliction of this area, which was once a hive of activity.
Disturbed
“I’m disturbed that this bus has been sitting here when the children who are living at Coomacka and other nearby communities are going without adequate transportation and so are finding it difficult to get to and from school.
“The transportation costs to get to Coomacka and these other communities are very high, compared to what currently prevails in Central Mackenzie itself,” Morian pointed out.
This is due to the fact that the access road to these communities is mostly in an atrocious state and nothing tangible is being done to rehabilitate it over the years.
Morian expressed concern that the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the government were not looking it the interest of indigenous peoples across Region Ten.
He said that the people need another bus to get their children to school, while the present one could probably be rehabilitated. “I’m calling on the Minister of Amerindian Affairs to look into these things. The indigenous people of Coomacka and environs need all the social amenities as people all across Guyana. Why are they being treated with such scant respect?
“I saw in the papers where they are putting hubs in certain communities so that residents could have easy access to the internet- what about these communities? Coomacka does not even have telephone lines. The road is no good and the people are still drinking raw river water.”
“And the Government went to Parliament for a billion-dollar with no programme; this is why in parliament I call for a national indigenous people’s development programme where fundament ly we could address all of the issues, water, light, agriculture, telephone in a programme, so incrementally we could build on this programme. You can’t spend a billion dollar on line items.”
“So what we are looking at here is the failure of the Government to address the issues of the indigenous people. And these people have rights like everybody else, anywhere in this country.
”That’s why we in the APNU are pushing for a better life for all Guyanese, so we are calling on the Minister of Amerindian affairs to tell us why this bus is sitting here when transportation is such a dire one for students and residents of Coomacka and its environs.”