While at the third Cabinet Outreach of 2010, in Farm, Region Three on Wednesday,  Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, in discussions with members of the agricultural community, indicated that if villagers continue to work together in a formal and organised manner, with the development that is manifesting into the Parika area, Government could put the necessary measures in place to apply municipal status to the Good Hope-Parika district. Dr. Luncheon shared the meeting with Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, and Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Chairman, Milton Dookie, among others. They were also joined by technical staff of the Ministries of Agriculture and Human Services and Social Security, the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
Dr. Luncheon noted that the Cabinet Outreach is an opportunity for elected officials to have an additional validation of reports received on a monthly basis. Ministers experience firsthand what is happening on the ground.
Farm consists of seven villages that were incorporated in 1999 into one NDC, with a tax base of $3M, collected annually from the central government. Villagers are employed primarily in cash crop agriculture and rice farming.
There was a drive towards finding a building to house the NDC office, and this collected over $600,000 in donations from residents.
There is currently a fully functional, government maintained, nursery school and health care facilities that meet the needs of residents. A donor funded recreational center, with football field and cricket pitch and two playgrounds service some of the sport needs of the area youth, and there is a community market as well.
There are five central programmes for this NDC. These are education, health, agriculture, social services, and drainage and irrigation. Reports from residents gathered, as well as the NDC Chairman, are that relations between the body and those to whom it is responsible are good, with communication flowing and a general attitude of community welfare and economic advancement deemed the primary concerns of residents.
With generally positive comments emerging in relation to educational, health and social services, the concerns were in the area of drainage and irrigation and upgrades to roads, dams and bridges. Addressing these matters would bring relief to farmers who lose crops as a result of flooding, and allow for faster movement of produce in particular, and transportation, in general, in the area. (GINA)