Dear Editor,
On November 27, 2011, the day before the general and regional elections this newspaper afforded me the privilege of publishing the last of several letters leading up to that election condemning the performance of the last administration. I was optimistic about a change after listening to members of the then opposition who are now ministers. Those opposition members had campaigned on rooting out corruption and reaching out to the ordinary people.
On January 25, 2017 a resident of Cummings Lodge had a letter published in this newspaper with a photograph attached showing the deplorable condition of a section where Sixth Street meets UG Road. I live on this street. With so much rain since then, this area has deteriorated significantly and is inconveniencing bus drivers, taxi drivers and hundreds of residents, especially UG students. For the record, these craters started out as two potholes about eight inches in diameter one-and-a-half years ago.
It has been six weeks now I have been calling the Roads Department of the Ministry of Public Works almost on a daily basis and only Mr Rahaman answered his mobile a few times out of a total of about thirty. I explained to him the importance of this street to the residents of Cummings Lodge, Industry and Ogle. At first he directed me to the City Council. I informed him that our village has been paying rates and taxes for over forty years and the only service the council provided for the past twenty-five years or so is collecting garbage once per week. Mr Rahaman promised me on May 22 that after preparations at D’Urban Park some works will be done. That turned out to be just a promise.
It seems that this government is practising constituency politics with villages in this area, as only Sophia and Atlantic Ville are getting the attention of the Ministry of Public Works. The street in question is part of the original village of Cummings Lodge which has five other streets going north to the Railway Embankment. These other five streets can be regarded as the most deplorable series of streets in Georgetown. I was born here almost fifty years ago and I have never seen Fifth Street in an acceptable state.
One would have thought that these government officials would have practised what they preached before they went into office, which is that they will have an open door policy towards the ordinary people by being on the ground to find out their needs. We have never seen a government official in this village. They are sharing out “The Good Life” elsewhere.
Yours faithfully,
R M Khan
