Dear Editor,
I witnessed a picketing exercise on Friday, May 11 in the vicinity of the Regional Chairman’s Office and also near the Guyana Rice Development Board Office in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), and having read all of the placards, talked to a few persons who were in the picketing line, and also read most of the daily newspapers that carry the farmers stories, one would be led to believe that the Mahaicony Rice Mill may have owed farmers in this region large sums of money for paddy over a lengthy period of time.
But I and many others will remember that at a public meeting held at the Aurora Primary School on April 8, 2011, the former President, Mr Jagdeo, made an announcement saying that he had injected US$12M into Mahaicony Rice Mills so that farmers all over the country will be paid the money owing to them, and the entire rice industry would benefit.
He went further to say that the opposition may not agree with his decision, but it was done in the nation’s interest.
At this said meeting were the current President Donald Ramotar, the former Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, the current Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture Alli Baksh, and most of the senior agriculture officials, at both the national and regional levels.
The question is if that amount of money was made available to this rice milling company, then it is expected that farmers doing business with the company would be paid promptly.
Well, I have been asking this question at almost all the meetings I recently attended whenever the opportunity presented itself, including the monthly Regional Democratic Council meetings, but surprisingly nobody, including those who were at the head table when the former President made this very important announcement, seems to be able to provide further information regarding this cash injection.
Yours faithfully,
Archie W Cordis
AFC Councillor
Region 2
