Dear Editor,
I CAUSED a letter to appear in the Stabroek News of Monday, 19th December, 2011, in which I was basically finding out the status of the Aurora Land development Project, and this was after more than five years, since early in 2006, when then president Bharat Jagdeo accompanied by former Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and other senior national and regional officials held a meeting at the Aurora Primary School, and promised the residents of that community to have more than 5,500 ( five thousand, five hundred) acres of arable land developed and distributed to them, the landless, and who would have met the criteria and all of this were to happen, six months from that day.
It is important to note that during my tenure as a Regional Democratic Councillor, from the Alliance For Change (AFC) List of Candidates. The question about the progress of this much-touted project was asked at many RDC meetings, and also of the Agriculture and Works Committee, a Statutory Committee of the RDC on which I also served; but on each occasion, the answers were not informative, nor encouraging, and at times I got the distinct impression that the persons answering the questions were not honest in their replies or responses.
In 2011 on the 8th April, Mr. Jagdeo returned to the same venue, the Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud again with him, and other senior agriculture officials, and one newcomer in the person of Mr. Donald Ramotar, of course this was shortly after he was selected to be the People’s Progressive Party presidential candidate. This time both Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Ramotar repeated the promise that was made to the more than five hundred (500) persons more than five years ago.
Both men spoke at length about this much important and long-overdue project, their speeches were consistently punctuated by raucous applause and the hope and joy of the people were evident by their facial expressions and body language, mine included. But after more than 10 years there is no evidence to suggest or indicate that positive things had begun to happen or are happening as regards this project that would have benefitted thousands of people directly and indirectly.
In the Kaieteur News on page 5 of Wednesday, 1st July, 2015, I again by way of a letter to the editor, enquired about the land promised to the people, by a current Head of State and it was under the caption, “The Project that never was” and my hope was that a comment by those who made those promises would have been made, but from then to now, the deafening silence continues, and the hopes of the people have faded. The question to be asked, were these promises real? The old adage ‘promises are made to be broken.’ Promises are comforting words, but only to fools, a promise is a debt, what are we to believe. This piece of information may help you to form an opinion.
In 2006 Mr Jagdeo was seeking a second term and in 2011, Mr Ramotar with the help of Mr Jagdeo was seeking his first; we the people that were there in 2006 and 2011, were seeking to have a piece of land. Jagdeo got his second, Ramotar got his first, but what we the people got ?
In retrospect, it is reasonable to conclude that it was indeed a project that never was; I would bet my last penny that come 2020 more or similar types of promises would be made. In 2017 the budget holds good for the agriculture sector and there are high hopes for the people that are involved in the crops and livestock area. But producing more means getting more persons involved and occupation of land by the landless.
The empoldering of this much-needed and touted project becomes more important and cannot be over emphasised. Perhaps the Honourable Minister Mr Noel Holder, can say if anything was or is in the pipeline regarding this project.
Regards
Archie W. Cordis
Former AFC Councillor
Region Two