President David Granger on Friday presented two 30-seater buses for school children to the Region Five, Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and questions were raised at the absence of Regional Chairman Vickchand Ramphal but he said he was not invited.
The buses were donated by corporate citizens to the President’s “Boats, Buses and Bicycles” (‘three Bs’) programme which aims to lessen the financial burden of transportation on parents of school-age children. The handing-over was done at the RDC’s headquarters at Fort Wellington, the Ministry of the Presidency reported.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Ramphal denied reports that his absence was due to any form of disrespect or political directive from the opposition PPP/C to prevent chairmanships under their control from attending ceremonies of this nature.
“This is not a case that the RDC wanted to be disrespectful…not at all, the party did not give such instructions to not attend,” he said of remarks attributed to Granger suggesting that Ramphal was not permitted to come by the party.
Ramphal said that as a courtesy, the chairman of the RDC is usually notified directly by the Ministry of the Presidency of any visit by the president and this never happened. Instead, he said, Regional Executive Officer (REO) Roderick Edinboro informed him of the president’s visit last Wednesday.
Ramphal said at that point, he asked the REO if he was invited as there are multiple occasions when the President and various ministers visit to interact with the people and the RDC is only notified as a courtesy. The chairman said he was not told that his appearance was necessary and as he received no formal communication, he left it at that.
According to the chairman, 24 hours prior to the President’s visit, he received a programme of the event but was not notified or asked if he wished to speak or add to the programme. Ramphal said since the chairmanship is the highest form of government at the regional level and the Ministry of the Presidency would call the regional office to make preparations and that was not communicated, he did not attend.
On Friday, Granger presented two 30-seat school buses named G1 and G2 to the region. A group, organised by Brian Tiwari of BK International Incorporated, donated the buses. Others include Nasrudeen Mohamed of Jumbo Jet Trucking Services and Auto Sales, Eddie Boyer of National Hardware Limited, Eton Chester, the Managing Director of Citizens Bank and two overseas-based Guyanese Gordon Winter and Art Ricknauth, who organised a fundraiser.
At the presentation ceremony, Granger stated that school buses will link communities to education and education will lead to employment. The president said the buses, part of the larger programme which has seen the handing-over of six boats and hundreds of bicycles to communities so far, were necessary to reduce basic costs associated with sending children to school.
“We cannot accept a situation [where] every single month 400 children are dropping out [of]school…many of them drop out because their parents cannot afford to keep them in school, they cannot afford the transportation [costs],” Granger was quoted as saying.
The ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Social Cohesion Amna Ally.
