…President, ministers address various concerns
AS the National Toshaos Council Meeting pressed on yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo and members of his Cabinet listened to the concerns of various Amerindian communities and made promises of allocations of either cash or equipment to further cement the partnership between Government and the country’s first peoples.

And the President called on the Amerindian leaders to come out to the meeting today, when representatives of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank are expected to attend, so that they could let them know the realities of the people in the community.

At the opening of the meeting on Monday, the President asked that the institutions which have the responsibility for inter-mediating the climate change funds must not stymie the process, since the money has been earned by the people of Guyana and its use must be decided by them.
The meeting, to last until tomorrow, is ongoing at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
The President and members of the Cabinet listened to the concerns of the Amerindian communities, whose members have communicated their concerns to their leaders with the expectation that they raise them with the Government.
Speaking to the gathering of Toshaos and other persons of Amerindian descent, the President said that the process of land extensions has begun, and out of the 36 villages that have applied for extensions, eight have been approved and of this eight, four have been completed.
The President said that persons must apply early if they want their request to have the attention of the authorities.
Questioned on the fibre-optic cables that Government is procuring from Brazil, the President said that while it is not practical to break the cable at every Amerindian community to provide connections there, it might be a better idea to do this for some of the most populous villages along the path that the cable will take. He said that the alternative to this would be to use satellite connections to link the other villages with smaller populations to the internet.
One of the Toshaos of a Region Nine village, Michael De Mendonca, said that measures should be put in place for traffic control because of the speed of commercial vehicles that traverse the road at high speeds when school children also use the road. He also complained about the high levels of dust from passing vehicles, saying that it has concomitant health concerns.
The President assured that there will be enhanced traffic control; but as to further complaints regarding the level of dust that blows up from the roads when these vehicles pass, he said that there is little that could be done about this, except for saying to people that they cannot use the roads.

The President said that by the end of next year, all of the Amerindian villages will have solar panels for every household. He said that the process will involve sourcing the most appropriate panels for the situation on the ground.
For many of the Toshaos, the President said that they should furnish him with a list of what they need in their communities and his Government would provide the necessary financing to fulfill these needs.
Further, he said that some of the communities have failed to pick up their Presidential grants for projects and that they should do so.
The President, upon hearing of a complaint of persons in the community of Kato being harassed by the Police for operating All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) without licences, said that this should not be the case.
He decried that Police are enforcing this stipulation and said that there should be an arrangement where the Toshao of a community certifies that someone is competent enough to operate an ATV and this should allow that person to get about their business, much of which requires the use of the versatile vehicles.
“If it is a rogue policeman, then we have to deal with that, but we should ask the Village Council to certify people to drive these [vehicles] and the Police will accept that,” the President said.
A community member of Santa Rosa said that they were not getting the support of the Police in Moruca. He said that there are only two police persons in the whole of the Barama area. He asked that a Police outpost be placed there because there are many miners working in the area. He said that the Police are handicapped for land and water transport.
The President said to the members of his Cabinet: “We should look at land and water transport for the Police at Moruca.”
Some of the persons expressed concern that they continue to be harassed by members of the Guyana Police Force for not having licences for the operation of boats. The President, in response, said that the Government will examine the issue of licenses for boats since it is a matter also for fishermen working along the coast.
Norma Thomas, Toshao from Kamarang, Region 7, told the President that the schools there are overcrowded and that it is very expensive to fly items into the area. She asked whether the President would use some of the LCDS money to buy a plane to bring relief to the community.
“We are still backward in the Upper Mazaruni…we don’t know what computer look like…we don’t know what is cell phone. We want internet so ‘silly’ persons cannot come and give us wrong information. I don’t know anything about website. All we have is spider web!” she said.
The meeting later broke up into small groups to discuss various projects that could be funded separately in a speedier manner.