Dear Editor,
2011 being the election year for Guyana, it’s nice to see the politicians putting the needs of Guyanese on the back bench while they bicker with one another.
Editor, for over fifty years, people have been living on the Uivtlugt Sideline Dam and have been pleading for roads and telephones, but to date there’s no hope in sight. As I have mentioned in previous letters published in the dailies, before some places like Stewartville and Uivtlugt were developed, people were living on the Uivtlugt Sideline Dam, and now they all see these places develop and get roads and telephones whilst they keep hoping. The Cornelia Ida Sideline Dam has two houses and they recently got a spanking new road far wider than what is required for the Uivtlugt Sideline Dam. Only recently roads were build in Stewartville that are hardly being used by people and vehicles, whilst the Uivtlugt Sideline Dam serves as a main access point for both villages, because it is quicker and in some cases safer. In some villages, they have concrete strips which are becoming popular recently.
In Monday’s paper I saw an article stating that Region Three will be getting some $50M to repair roads and one of the NDCs which has responsibility for Uivtlugt will be receiving money to do repairs. If my information is correct since becoming the Regional Chairman of Region 3, Mr Julius Faerber never ventured to the back of Uivtlugt Sideline Dam. Once he attempted to, and due to the state the dam was in, he reversed his vehicle not far from the start of the dam and never attempted it again. Perhaps, now being sunny, he could come again and view the whole dam and see if there is any way he could ensure that the residents of the dam get a proper road, because as he’s aware, when it’s raining the dam is impossible to traverse, especially for vehicles.
I recall Sonita Jagan saying that the internet cafés were causing the telephone company to lose money in her last press conference at the Pegasus Hotel when she was CEO of GT&T. Many years later the present CEO of the only landline provider in this country could be heard echoing those same words recently. Now I am not a genius but how could a CEO say that when throughout this whole country, people have been trying to get landlines for years now? Unlike the GPL, when landline subscribers don’t pay their bills by the due date, they automatically get disconnected and after a period of time, they will have to pay a reconnection fee.
Apart from that, they also have to pay a rental fee every month. I know for a fact, in most cases, more business means more profit but that seems not to be so in the case of GT&T.
Editor, GWI and GPL have seen fit to provide the residents of Uitvlugt Sideline Dam with water and electricity, and they are wondering why GT&T is so reluctant to give them landlines. Perhaps Mr Mahadeo could take time off from all the entertainment stuff he’s involved in and focus more energy on people’s needs, because I am quite sure that is not what the residents of Guyana want from the only telephone provider here.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
