Dear Editor,
Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill, and a team of four were on an official visit to India from 12-16 June, for the launch ceremony of the ocean-going cargo-cum-passenger ferry vessel being built for Guyana by M/s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd. as part of Government of India’s US$12.7M Line of Credit-cum-Grant project. The ocean-going passenger and cargo ferry will primarily ply the Georgetown-North West District route. As a matter of perhaps more than serendipity, the docks from where the ferry was launched are the very same from where 94% of the 239,000 Indian Indentured Immigrants (Girmitiyas) departed India. A memorial plaque was installed at Kidderpore (Demerara) depot on January 10, 2011 by members of GOPIO, at which Chief Minister of W Bengal Marta Bannerjee, other dignitaries and members of the Indian Diaspora were in attendance. The depot housed the prospective immigrants, sometimes for months, until a shipload was accumulated. The 75,000 immigrants who returned up to 1955 would have also landed on these docks. It is hoped that the Ministerial delegation took the time to visit the Memorial from where so many of our populace originated.
Sincerely,
Ravi Dev