IF YOU were trying to move around town- around the upper Brickdam area- on Wednesday, then you probably know that the area was really congested. Why? Well, that was the day there was this novel ‘Government comes to the people’ public outreach event.

What happened here was that all of the government ministries brought representatives into this single space so that persons can have access to information and garner some assistance with their concerns. As expected, a majority of the concerns brought to the public day dealt with housing solutions. You know—owning your our home is one of those material goals that we all have, so why not?

It was refreshing to see Ministers out in the field, among their constituents, handling their concerns personally. Junior Minister of Housing, Valerie Patterson Yearwood- the most sought after person that day- was definitely ‘in the thick of things’. At any one point in the day, you could see hundreds of persons at her tent, with their documents in hand eager to get a house lot. And at the same time, you could hear her voice over the crowd begging for some order.

And it was the same for her ministerial colleagues who interfaced with citizens throughout the day– albeit not as many.

Now the concept of a public day, or open day, is nothing new. Several ministries and ministers have opened up their offices before and afforded their constituents with the opportunity to come in and visit these– in an attempt to provide some redress.

There have also been public events where ministries took their personnel into communities. Again, there was Yearwood in the thick of things just a few weeks ago during several outreaches to the community of Sophia. The aim of these events was to listen to the concern of the residents here and specifically, help with regularising their lots or relocating those living on the government reserves.

What was nifty about this public day was that all of the ministries and the associated agencies, like the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and alike, were at one location. And what this meant was that several concerns could be addressed in one day because of the close proximity of the bodies. Less time for the ‘whole day’ sit down, you know?

Now, from being on the ground, the consensus was that the initiative was a good one. That was almost a given. And according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, events like these spotlight the need for the decentralisation of resources.

“You shouldn’t force people to come to the government, the government must go to the people and you should have decentralising of functions– you should have a spread out in the rural as well as the hinterland areas of government services,” the Prime Minister said.

The public day was massive and remains to be seen is an event with these features being taken to other parts of the country– not just Georgetown. And for the PM, that is exactly what is needed. He opined that ministers and ministries ought to make themselves available to all citizens, and I can’t say that I disagree with him.

This reminds me of when Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry took a spontaneous trip to President’s College a few months ago. Her aim was to see what a normal day for the students was like and from this, she pledged to increase money allocated to their meals. Or the other time when the psychosocial mobile visited students of Mae’s Secondary school– after they tragically lost a colleague. For me, those were good examples of ‘touching base’ with the people.

For now, I’ll wait to see those housing schemes being developed quickly so that the people could get their house lots as soon as possible.