Development must start with the NDCs funded with oil money

Mar 15, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor

Kaieteur News – For the past 2 years, 2020 to 2022, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo and President Irfaan Ali have been expressing dreams using Oil $$$ to make Guyana another Dubai. They dream of skyscraper hotels, casinos, luxury resorts, and mega projects springing up around Georgetown and on the East Coast of Demerara.

Even if such projects do materialise, what about the remainder of rural Guyana where the NDCs are supposed to govern but lack resources to do so resulting in all the villages being eyesore garbage dumps.

Take Region 3 for example. The West Coast Demerara public road is littered with wayside “workshops” where trucks and other vehicles are parked on the parapets, shoulders, and even on the drive lanes. At Anna Catherina, used engines are displayed on the shoulder and drive lane. In one street in Anna Catherina, one “workshop” has strewn the parapets with scrap iron. At Uitvlugt, there is a truck “workshop” on the roadway while at the Mandir Street, one shop usually has vehicles diagonally across the street. Sheer lawlessness is what prevails in Region 3.

It is not that there are no laws. There are and they are supposed to be enforced by the NDCs but the NDCs lack the resources to do so. And so long as laws are not enforced, there will always be lawlessness and Guyana will forever remain a backward nasty lost world country. If VP Jagdeo were to study the development of Dubai, and Singapore, he would see that development cannot take place without rigid law enforcement at all levels especially at the local government level.

In this regard, the VP should use the first tranche of Oil $$$ to begin development at the level of the NDCs as follow:
1. Each NDC should have Special Constabularies to enforce existing laws.
2. Each NDC or a combination of NDCs should have special night Municipal Courts to deal immediately with violations.
3. Each NDC or a combination of NDCs should have special vehicles and machinery to deal with derelict vehicles and material left on streets and in canals.
4. Each NDC or a combination of NDCs should have special designated zones for industrial activity as well as business away from residential areas.
5. All workshops must be relocated to the industrial zone.
6. All rum shops must be relocated to the business or industrial zone.

The removal of rum shops from residential areas is especially important for the development of Guyana, especially our children. As matters now stand, our villages and public roads are punctuated with rum shops. A child starting out Nursery School will pass at least 5 rum shops/rum ads on the way to school. At the Primary level, a child will see 10 rum shops/rum ads and at the Secondary level, the child will witness 15 rum shops/rum ads. Our children are conditioned to accept, embrace, and propagate a rum culture – and the domestic abuse and violence that accompany the rum culture. Development is not about high rise building but all about people and it starts at the level of children.

Yours sincerely,

Malcolm Harripaul AA

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