Dear Editor
AMONG the revelations by Charles Ceres in his illustration of Bharat Jagdeo’s PPP/C, had been reference to acreages given to Demerara Investment Limited, a company owned by Eddie Boyer, a well-known city businessman.

As was brought to the public’s attention by way of the media, this citizen, a well-known supporter of the PPP/C, whose open political line had been called into question during his tenure of chairman of the Private Sector Commission, was a recipient of land for housing development purposes. Others in this category would have included PPP/C MP Odinga Lumumba, and Bai Shan Lin. One is certain, that given the depth of the morass that has been the criminal state in Guyana, that there are other scandalous PPP/C land deals that surround many instances of leases being granted to friends and cronies.

I stand corrected, by referring to a media report a while ago, which highlighted that many of these recipients, even after the coalition came to office, were not in fulfilment of the conditions that attended their lease agreement. In other words, the lands were still idle. This is in contrast to Ceres, who has ever since executed his stated plan for use of his acreages, allotted – the construction of his engineering firm, Ground Structures

Engineering Company (GSEC), which is contributing to the development and training of young Guyanese engineers for national development. Surely, this is a citizen who clearly understands his obligations to legal requirements, extending same to practical realisations.
Editor, I am referring to this issue is against the background of reports from the CH&PA of there being no more vacant land for housing construction in Region Four. This has to be true, since lands that should have been allotted to ‘would-be’ home builders, have been given to friends of the former PPP/C administration. Surely, this could not have been tending to the needs of the working class.

One would have thought that the first responsibility of any government in such a key social development initiative is land for the less privileged to build homes; is ensuring that this seminal need is fulfilled – that the needs of the less possessed are given priority.
In fact, the overwhelming citizens’ concern at each of the “Bringing the Government to you” exercises has been housing. This would have illuminated the reasons as to the over 25,000 unanswered applications, most existing since the 1990s, apart from the newly-made thousands after 2015.

It is a given as to those friends of the PPP/C, their intention to build homes, and perhaps, gated communities, not for the poor, but for the super-rich. These would have been at prices far beyond the reach of the financially incapable. No surprise, as this is yet another example of the PPP/C’s grand design of every citizen having a home of their own – fortifying its rich associates.
Regards
Aditya Panday