Ever since this government came to office in 1992 one of its priorities has been the implementation of housing programmes throughout the country, particularly among low-income families, to facilitate thousands of Guyanese, who were deprived for decades from owning a plot of land and a home, to have that opportunity.

Despite what the detractors of the government are saying, today, thousands of Guyanese have become proud owners of a home fulfilling a dream which seemed an impossible under the previous administration which closed the doors to housing.

But it is not that the government has only been giving house lots, it has also been working feverishly to find concessionary financing for people to build their houses, as well as hastening the processing titles.

And in its continuing efforts to improve its delivery of service to the people, the Housing Ministry recently has formulated the “One Stop Shop” programme-a very practical innovation designed to address concerns by residents and speed up the house lot application and allocation process.

From all reports this innovation has been a success in all the administrative regions and residents have expressed their satisfaction with this new development.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Ms. Myrna Pitt: “The exercise has been tremendous. We just came back from Linden and we had a huge turnout there. We also had huge turnouts in the other regions. “So far, it has been successful taking the services to the people. It enables you to conclude transactions in real time almost and some issues you can deal with on the spot. It is always a fruitful and worthwhile exercise, that direct interface with customers because, sometimes, persons might not have been able to come down to you. So when you go out there, having direct contact and interfacing, it kind of eases some of the burdens on some of the people. It has been a very worthwhile exercise so far.”

Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali also disclosed that so far, 4,300 transactions have been processed through the ‘One Stop Shop’ in different regions, and notably as well the ministry’s objective is to develop, process and allocate in excess of 17,000 house lots by December 2010.

It is evident, therefore that the Housing Ministry has been taking a customer friendly approach to its work and this is indeed exemplary and this no doubt is a reflection of the caring nature of the administration.

Housing is one of the basic necessities of life but very importantly too is that it is a form of social security and a legacy which can be passed on from generation to generation thereby helping them to build a secure future.

The minister who also holds responsibility for the water sector has been taking a very proactive approach to the water woes which have been affecting many communities across the country, and in doing so he has been going on the ground to familiarise himself with the problems and interface with residents. This indeed commendable and one would hope that this approach would be increasingly adopted by other government officials.

This has been the approach advocated and used by the late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan in and out of government and certainly he will be smiling in that great beyond that his loyal disciples are vigorously continuing his rich legacy of working tirelessly to solve the problems of the people.