GUYANESE are sometimes unbelievable. They want and clamour for better things including services from government and when the time comes for that to happen, some try to make it difficult. Government has been pushing to improve the electricity supply since the population has increased over time and people have moved to other areas increasing the housing spread. While Guyana’s development plans for improvement of the electricity sector is already underway, the installation of electricity cables along the railway embankment at Lamaha is pivotal to this improvement.

For decades people have squatted on that land along the canal, and over time there have been efforts to have them relocated, everyone has moved to house lots given to them by Government as an amicable solution to the problem; everyone but K.P Thomas.

For someone who is affluent and cognizant of the need for the improvement in the sector, why is he hesitant to move when everyone along that stretch has been long gone?

A regular landlord usually has a hard time in getting troublesome tenants off his property and would eventually have to seek recourse at the courts, which is a long process. Government has gone through the process and has on several occasions given notices to KP Thomas for their removal, but even so, with everyone else living along that block having to move doesn’t it stand to reason that they would have to move as well, given the location and the running of the electricity cables?

This shows that regardless of what Government tries to do in terms of development, it will run into occasional glitches in the form of people who deliberately set out to foil Guyana’s development plan. Now that Government has moved to take action after giving notices for so long, people would want to criticize, but any Government has the right of compulsory acquisition and can take back the property since it is needed for use in the development of one of the sectors which will benefit all Guyanese.

Just look at the situation with the Berbice River Bridge, when the land was needed along the route, residents were relocated and compensated so that the development plans could move ahead smoothly. In this day when land is affordable and easier to acquire, why would a construction company make it so hard to move from a plot of land that was never theirs to begin with? They are not only defying the Government on this but are showing defiance against development for the Guyanese people!
K. JOHNSON