Dear Editor,
Editor, I accept that GHK Lall tortures the English language but does not get it to reveal its meaning so I could be misinterpreting his pejorative letter of the 10th December describing the distribution of the $25,000 cash grant to pensioners. My experience was the complete opposite. I turned up at about 11am at Albion Sports Complex on the second day allocated for my village. A member of staff called over my wife to say her pension book for 2024 had arrived as it was not available in November. There were about a dozen people in front of us and within 20 minutes we collected our cash grants, exchanged pleasantries with staff members and left. Job done and a pleasant experience. I expect what can and does happen is that people turn up to the first day of cash distribution, whether or not they are allocated to that collection point.
Not everyone reads the papers where the schedules are printed. They will be there at least an hour before the sharing of money begins because that’s how things work in Guyana. If people are too impatient to follow the guidelines then be prepare for chaos and a long wait. This is not the fault of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. Vindhya Persaud has done a lot to make pensions easier to receive and to take pressure off post offices each month. Under her leadership we can collect our pension from MoneyGram or SurePay outlets or have the money paid directly to a bank account.
The cash grant is beautifully packaged and in this small way shows respect to senior citizens. GHK’s playground insults directed at the Minister and her Ministry were unfair to say the least.
Sincerely,
Robert Perks
