Positive changes in Essequibo since APNU+AFC came to power

Oct 27, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor
I’m not surprised to see the former President of Guyana and present leader of the PPP/C, Dr. Jagdeo penning a letter to the editor crying foul. I’m quite sure that the letter was written with the intention to win the sympathy of the public but the manner it was written shows that they haven’t changed their attitudes and they are still ‘wolves in sheep clothing’. One would assume that given that they’ve lost the last election, they might have changed their dictatorial attitudes and tried to embark on a mission to win back the voters’ confidence; instead Jagdeo and the members of the PPP/C are going about the place telling people that they were cheated and criticising all the projects the this present government is embarking on while failing to admit the blunders they have caused.
The PPP/C would say all sorts of things to cover their era in governance and the corruptions that they have created but below I will outline some of the changes I saw only recently. On Saturday 22nd October, whilst myself and others were travelling in a car to Charity, we observed some people of different ethnicity cleaning the parapets on both sides of the roadway (New Road and Somerset). Immediately two Essequibians that were with us began giving praises and started to talk about the atrocities that were happening during the PPP/C’s era in regards to keeping the roadsides clean.
Many people especially residents of Essequibo might not be aware but for quite a number of years the contract to clean weeds and bushes from both sides of the Essequibo public road (from Supernaam to Charity) was awarded to a favorite of the PPP/C to a tune somewhat in the vicinity of twenty million Guyana dollars per year and from what I gathered, people forgot (especially the residents of Essequibo) that someone was being paid to clean the parapets at least twice a year; and the only time it might be actually cleaned was when the President was visiting that Cinderella county and only the location to where he was going would be cleaned. Beyond that, the areas remained as they were especially where there were abandoned lots or places that don’t have residents
They even joked that the contractor seemed to forget that he was being paid a hefty sum of money to clean the roadsides. What is even more shocking to know is that the same contractor was also awarded the contract to keep the roadside between Parika and Vreed-en-Hoop clean also for another huge sum of money and there too was left to deteriorate whilst money was being paid to keep it clean.
The twist of it now is under this new administration the REO of Essequibo is not giving the contract to one individual but breaking it up into small pieces and giving it to various people/groups or organisations, thus the roadsides will be rid of negligence and the contract cannot not be seen as a corrupt practice. During the PPP/C’s era, they had a tendency of giving selected persons of their choice contracts way above the value; they weren’t even qualified. They made them extremely rich overnight. BK could attest to this fairy tale. In another letter I will explain how some of these same persons coveted a lot of defenseless people’s land and converted them to their own assets.
Editor, the only road from Supernaam to Charity is very narrow and if a vehicle is parked between the roadway and parapet, it’s impossible for two vehicles to traverse in opposite directions at the same time. One has to stop and allow the other to pass. If trucks or tractor and trailers or any other heavy duty vehicle is parked on the roadside, it makes the situation worse. Added to that, the main transportation consists of hire cars and majority of them go at a very fast rate which causes me to have a few scares because many vehicles including trucks would reverse out of their yard/parking place without giving due consideration to oncoming traffic and many times the cars I’m in have to apply brakes extremely hard and the errant driver wouldn’t give any indication of being sorry for his actions.
The residents of Essequibo should demand that their road be widen because that county’s contribution towards Guyana is tremendous especially in terms of rice and agricultural produce and lots of lives are lost there due to road accidents. I will not elaborate on that but would like to congratulate the Commander and traffic officers of the Essequibo (G Division) for the job they are doing there.
I’m pleased to hear that none of the traffic officers are accepting any bribes. If that is happening I haven’t hear of it and I do communicate with lots of people when I visit Essequibo and if someone gets off by paying a bribe he/she would boast of it and people would hear and talk about it. Many of those I converse with appreciate the work the traffic police of Essequibo are doing because it’s making their roadway safer. Friday night last was Essequibo Night and the police was out in their numbers with the Breathalyzer machine and the guys are saying not a man drink because if they had, quite a number of accidents would have occurred and the various stations would have been full with crashed cars. That used to happen before and now it’s not happening although Essequibo Night was held for two nights. That is change for good.
Sahadeo Bates

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