Minister Ali asks Ramjattan
Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, yesterday responded to Alliance For Change’s Khemraj Ramjattan with regard to the $4B that was used to purchase lands from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) for housing development. He also lamented the sensationalising of the issue by certain sections of the media.
He said, “They have these sensational headlines but the body of the story says nothing as to where the minister would have erred or what is the issue relating to the headline.”
The minister noted that yesterday’s Kaieteur News quoted Ramjattan questioning where the house lots for which the $4B was invested were.
He explained that land, which could be acquired by the State, private entities or through a public/private partnership, is extremely important in the development of house lots.
He explained that the ministry’s database showed a high demand for house lots in Region 4, and as a result, it was necessary to acquire land to make the lots available to citizens.
To this end, Government invested the $4B that was sought in early 2010 to acquire in excess of 2,000 acres of land from GuySuCo.
Thus far, the Ministry has 1000 serviced house lots completed in Eccles, close to 700 in Herstelling, and is working on a further 1500 moderate-income lots at Providence, while the design for a further 1000 lots at Herstelling has been recently completed. This, he said, has been realised as a result of the $4B investment.
Minister Ali maintained that this transaction has, by no measure, been kept a secret from the public, as media operatives have, on several occasions, been informed and invited to witness these developments.
He said that when creating moderate and low income schemes, the enabling industrial, commercial, and economic infrastructure has to also be in place to sustain the schemes.
In this regard, part of the investment at Providence will see a commercial zone and an industrial zone at Eccles. These developments have led to hundreds of millions of dollars in investments by the private sector.
“You can point fingers and say that the minister is lying, but where is the lie?…the $4B was paid to GuySuCo for lands which were transferred to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), which has commenced work to develop 15,000 houselots on the East Bank,” Minister Ali clarified.
He reaffirmed that his commitment lies and will remain in the development and expansion of the housing and water sector so that Guyanese can benefit from an improved standard of living.
He agreed too, that the Housing Ministry has been a target of Ramjattan and the AFC because of the physical nature of the sector, whose development can be seen throughout the country in terms of various housing schemes and water infrastructure.
He added that the impact of these developments dealt a blow to the AFC’s political strategy during its elections campaign.
These policies, he emphasised, trickle down to, “the direct benefit of the poor and vulnerable and the society at large…it is clear that they (AFC) have politically capsuled housing as the sector to go after, because it has tremendous political potential in terms of growth, advancement, transformation and direct benefit for the populace…they would try anything to discredit the achievements of the housing sector.”
The Minister also asserted that he is prepared to respond to whatever issues Ramjattan raise in the 10th Parliament as it relates to this matter.
Notably, the CH&PA is up-to-date with its accounts which have already been audited and submitted to the National Assembly. This, the minister said is yet another remarkable achievement for the sector.
Where is the lie?
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