THE plan by government to transform several areas into townships is in progress. This was disclosed by Local Government and Regional Development Minister, Ganga Persaud, during an interview with the state media on Wednesday. Persaud said a number of areas were identified in the past, however, under his tenure the ministry is seeking to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place to support this move by government.
“The township programme is still on. We would have identified in the past a number of communities which we are looking at, and to take it to that level, where the status of township can be offered there are several things that must be in place,” Persaud noted.
He assured that once the required infrastructure is in place, his ministry will be moving towards this initiative.
“We are hoping that once we can put in the required infrastructure the NDCs areas will be transformed into towns,” he said.
He said presently the most important thing is not to replicate situations that occurred in the past as it relates to this. “Which is rushing into indentifying and naming areas as townships and not having the requisite infrastructure it kind of pull down the image that goes with the township,” he stated.
With this in mind, the minister said the People’s Progressive Party government is very conscious of such situations, as such the necessary steps will be taken before any other area can be designated a township.
“We do not want to rush into designating an area as a township. We want to make sure that when we designate an area as a town that we would have the necessary supporting infrastructure supporting the area,” he emphasised.