PEOPLE are jubilant that the Coalition Government is going to them with working solutions for issues in their communities, so said Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in his latest column, which was published in the Sunday Chronicle under the caption, “Exciting times on all fronts”.

He was at the time commenting on the $1.5 billion package that was rolled out last week in La Parfaite Harmonie, a sprawling housing scheme of some 20,000 residents on the West Bank Demerara. According to Minister Ronald Bulkan, the funds would be used for streets, sidewalks, drainage, street lamps and playgrounds, and as subsidies to build core homes; and grants to upgrade low-income homes, in La Parfaite Harmonie.

During the mini-outreach, community leaders were informed that within two weeks a new police station would be commissioned, and two new wells would be constructed. The initiative for the Parfaite event was taken by Member of Parliament, Hon. Joseph Harmon, who is also the Director-General in the Ministry of the Presidency. In attendance were the Prime Minister, several government ministers and officials, and the top brass of the Guyana Police Force.

In his article, Mr. Nagamootoo observed that the housing scheme had grounded to a halt under the previous government which fell short of money to complete essential infrastructural works, “leaving behind a neglected community, and a nest of discontent”.
Similar sentiments of satisfaction were expressed by residents of Mahdia, the once-neglected mining town in the heartland of the Potaro-Siparuni Region. This region is noted for the Kaieteur and Orinduik Falls, the ever-green Parakarima Mountains, gold and diamond mines, and an unimaginable expansive spread of green, tropical foliage.
In Mahdia, the Prime Minister narrated how he was driven around in what he called a “Patmobile” by Public Infrastructure Minister, Hon. David Patterson, as they inspected the new concrete roads, “where once there were huge craters and red dusts”.

“I recalled in my childhood years the comic books that I loved, with Batman in his Batmobile coming to the rescue of distressed folks in the dangerous Gotham City,” the Prime Minister said as he credited the Infrastructure Minister for new roads in places such as Mahdia, Lethem, Bartica, Mabaruma and elsewhere in Guyana. The promised works in La Partfaite Harmonie, however, drew sour comments from the Stabroek News. In its editorial yesterday, the newspaper opined that the $1.5 billion for “much-needed upgrades for La Parfaite Harmonie” fell outside the remit of a government with “caretaker status”. The reported “jubilant” response of the people does not support this contention.