Cabinet outreach in E’bo meets with protests

May 30, 2019 News

As the Cabinet made their way to the Essequibo Coast yesterday for the ‘Government Comes to You’ initiative, they were greeted

Protesters in front of the Anna Regina Town Council yesterday

by protestors supportive of the Opposition party.
More than one hundred supporters of the People’s Progressive Party Civic [PPP/C] lined in front the Anna Regina Town Council with placards, mere meters away from the Government Outreach. The peaceful protest was led by senior party officials, including Arnold Adams.
Adams said during an interview with this publication, that he is concerned primarily with the increase in crime. He said that more communities are feeling less safe due to the lack of an effective community policing group.
“I could recall a few years ago, former Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had one of the most powerful community policing groups throughout the country… community policing used to run without politics, but since Minister Khemraj (Ramjattan) took office, community policing has been running by politics, and subsequently we see an increase in crime.”
Adams explained that the Community Policing group was an effective means to crime fighting, since members of the policing groups would know who the ‘bag eggs’ of the community were. “These community police use to patrol within their community and they know everyone within their communities, and they could’ve alert the police if they see any unusual thing.”
There were also a number of rice farmers who joined the protest yesterday. One farmer told this publication that he is disappointed with the little effort being made by government to provide proper representation to farmers. The farmer went on to say, “Millers taking advantage on rice farmers and there’s no one to stand up for rice farmers. We spoke to the higher authorities, they say they got nothing to do with the rice industry, is a private matter…Government before elections promised $10,000 per bag paddy, we use to get $3,000 now we getting $300.”
In response to major crop damage due to paddy bug infestation, the government had recently issued some 720 bags of seed paddy to farmers on the Essequibo Coast. When asked how this initiative benefitted him, one farmer said, “Who get it get it, and is only certain people get it. The pesticides is the same thing, certain people get it. They give certain people by the case and others get a quarter bottle. I ain’t saying the PPP nah had corruption, but this is worse what we got to face with.”

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