Joblessness, no markets for agricultural produce and corruption mark the underdevelopment of Region Eight, the Alliance For Change (AFC) says.
Representatives of the political party recently visited the communities of Paramakatoi, Kurukabaru, Kopinang and Chenapau in Region Eight and said that they found that those issues point clearly to an underdevelopment which has reduced the quality of life for the Amerindian people of the Region.
The team was led by Pradeep Bachan and he noted at an AFC press conference on Wednesday that Region Eight is essentially a collection of farming communities in an agriculturally productive area. However, the absence of markets is discouraging to the ‘Grow More’ food drive, he said. “This is largely the result of the unavailability of any access road to Lethem or Georgetown compounded by the high cost of air transport,” he pointed out while calling for the urgent facilitation of agro-processing in the area. The AFC is committed to this, he said.
According to Bachan, the villages of Region Eight have widespread joblessness which is sapping their life.
He said that residents also brought to the attention of the AFC, that when contracts are awarded for construction and rehabilitative works in the region, these are usually awarded to coastlanders instead of the skilled Amerindian contractors and other personnel who reside in the communities.
The AFC believes that such personnel should be facilitated as part of the developmental thrust, Bachan said.
In Chenapau, he noted, residents are outraged over the construction of a concrete structure with four toilets in the compound of the Chenapau primary school, which cost $11.7M. He said that the hapless residents are experiencing corruption “to an almost comical extent.”
Further, Bachan said, the residents of Kurukabaru and Chenapau while being grateful for the solar panels gifted by the government were disappointed to discover that these panels can only power two small energy saving bulbs because of the small size of the panel and the very small size back up battery. “The AFC holds that such underdevelopment has been allowed to materialise in Region Eight as the present PPP administration has no plan to promote and effect development in the region,” he stated.
Bachan declared that successive PNC and PPP governments have failed woefully in correcting the historic underdevelopment of the hinterland associated with colonial reign. The AFC is committed and well positioned to make this correction, he said.
