THE Opposition, People’s Progressive Party is said to be mobilising its supporters to stage protest actions against the government outreach, scheduled for Sunday, at the Leonora Track and Field Centre.

Ganesh Mahipaul, Information Officer of the Region Three (Essequibo Islands/ West Demerara) Regional Democratic Council told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday that they have received “credible information that the PPP is planning to disrupt the outreach.”

Mahipaul said he was informed that the party’s Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali who is also a resident of West Coast Demerara, was given a mandate to mobilise a strong group of protesters. “So we have the information because after the dismal showing of their protest in Berbice they are now trying to regroup and Ali was given that mandate to gather up some sort of support,” Mahipaul said.

As one of the coordinators of the outreach, Mahipaul said they have put all systems in place, including alerting the police about the alleged plan by the opposition. He said, too, that they received information that, as part of the protest, the PPP will be planting persons in the group dressed in the coalition colours. “These persons will be there to stir up trouble and prevent persons from accessing the services that will be on offer at the outreach,” Mahipaul said.

A Central Executive Member of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Mahipaul described the alleged planned action by the PPP as undemocratic. “This is what that party is known for over the years. People are now seeing it.”

Last week at the Berbice outreach held at the University of Guyana, Tain Campus, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, reiterated the government’s position on pushing for the

decentralisation of services and the empowerment of local authorities. Harmon and several other government ministers had booths of their respective ministries set up so as to give persons a chance of meeting one-on-one with them and other public officials and air their concerns. Harmon reminded his audience that the day’s event was all about taking the government to the people. “This exercise is part of us taking public services from the office to the place where people reside,” he said, adding: “And this has been on our programme since we came into office [in 2015]. We have actually decentralised several government offices.”

He said that “with the introduction of the new township, we have decentralised government services, and where we cannot establish offices, we bring offices from Georgetown to them. So that’s what we are doing here.”