– say promised govt assistance vital
Residents who have occupied the Lamaha railway embankment for umpteen years will imminently have to relocate to, by and large, the new Parfait Harmony housing scheme on the West Bank Demerara.
Stabroek News had reported on August 19 that high-power lines to facilitate power expansion are to be strung over the area the residents currently occupy.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) had reported that President Bharrat Jagdeo, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Housing Minister Harry Narine Nawbatt had met the families at the Kingston Community High School and assured them of government financial assistance to move as well as free house lots. Jagdeo told residents that their removal was imperative since the GPL lines to be installed would be high-voltage ones and could be dangerous.
GPL, GINA had said, was expected to complete installation of the power lines by May next year and so residents were urged to begin planning their relocation to facilitate the process.
Stabroek News recently spoke with a number of residents of the Lamaha railway embankment about their thoughts and feelings on their imminent removal.
Joseph K Ramkilawan and his wife Chandrekalie along with his extended family have been living on the embankment for 39 years. He said he was not opposed to moving since in the long run, it would prove to be wiser option. Ramkilawan said that finally having a transported house lot was something he looked forward to with anticipation.
He said the government assistance promised was vital as the smoothness of the transition process would depend on the government delivering on the promises it made. However, Ramkilawan and his wife underscored that their pending movement would have a dislocating effect given that they have lived there for 39 years.
According to the previously cited GINA release, many of the residents were reluctant to move citing economic and financial issues while others pointed to the need to be closer to social services, which they said would not be available in other areas.
Eileen Cox in her Consumer Concerns column in the Sunday Stabroek of August 24 commented, “Senior citizens plead that they have spent their youth in building the railway embankment into a kitchen and fruit garden, and now they do not have the energy to make a fresh start. They will not be happy until this problem is solved. They are also concerned about meeting living expenses after they move, because their first crops will still be growing, and also about finding markets when the final products are ready.”
John Blackman, an 84-year-old former member of the West India Regiment of British Guiana and member of the Guyana Legion said while moving would be a great inconvenience for him, he was not in any way resistant. The elderly diabetic, who had a grievous burn injury on one of his feet which was greatly exacerbated by his medical condition said that in his case, the promised government aid and even an extension of that help would be absolutely imperative to any smooth transition.
Blackman who had enlisted in the imperial military machinery during the outbreak of the second World War and was stationed at various locations in the country during that time, said he expected his new place of abode to be associated with minimal infrastructural hardships since at his age, he was not in a position to withstand much fatigue and harassment.
Gangadai Lalloo and her husband Surajpaul Sahadeo along with Lalloo’s mother Deowattie said they had attended the meeting with the President and were satisfied with the promises made. Lalloo said that living on a small plot of land with four children was not very convenient and they were anticipating a new beginning where their children would be able to inherit a house lot and property.
Ouditt Narine said he had moved to the Lamaha embankment many years ago from Leguan island and worked many jobs at sea and in the hinterland and was in fact “glad” of the impending move as it would afford him a more permanent and legitimate place of abode. Narine said, like most of the other residents, he was eagerly anticipating the state aid which would go a far way in alleviating the hardship and challenge of movement.
Questioned about the genesis of the problem, Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton Green said that the origin of the Lamaha embankment housing dilemma occurred during the 1970s, when the administration of the day had sought to promote and foster what was called “urban agriculture”. Citizens were encouraged to plant every available square inch. Green said this initiative was encompassed in the “feed, clothe and house the nation” policy that the then PNC government had attempted to implement.
He recollected that the administration, with the assistance of the government of India, sought to populate the waterways with Tilapia fishes since such a species multiplied rapidly and would have made available a cheap source of food.
Green said it was in this thrust that land was made available to persons desirous of planting on the Lamaha embankment. He said that those persons then requested permission to construct huts to have a facility from where to watch over their crops. This gradually resulted in the Lamaha “unmanageable” embankment housing predicament.
Green said that as indication of the entrenchment of the problem, it was brought to his attention that a former Superintendent of Parks had a premises on the Lamaha embankment.
Cox, in the above-cited column, made the point that the uncertainty of the services available at the West Bank location, the nature of the soil and the lack of infrastructure were causing distress to those who have been assigned land there. “What seems to be needed is a Round Table discussion with the relevant government officials and the Guyana Consumers Association to iron out the difficulties. Those who paid for their Railway Line plots should have their money refunded at today’s value…”