Dear Editor,
“IN four-and-a-half years, little or no improvement has been made in the various airstrips in the hinterland”. So said Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, a former People’s Progress Party (PPP) Minister in his Guyana Times Column last Wednesday last.
I did not have to do much research on the Parliament of Guyana website for information that nails Dr. Ramsammy’s lies. The Minister of Public Infrastructure has given data to this effect:
* 57 airstrips have been upgraded and constructed. These include airstrips at Baramita, Mabaruma, Port Kaituma, Bemichi, Mahdia, Kamarang, Monkey Mountain, Kato, Eteringbang and Kurupung!
* The Bemichi airstrip, which services the Moruca sub-region, cost $ 69M.
* Lethem airport will be made into an international hub, with planned upgrade costing $834 million.
* $2 billion has been approved for additional upgrades of airstrips and installation of light and other safety features.
* Iwokrama aerodrome was lengthened from 762 meters to 1,219 meters, thus accounting for more tourists visiting our Iwokrama Rainforest Resort.
Dr. Ramsammy should be more careful with his facts. It is easier to deny his role in procuring electronic devices that were used during a bloody period of his regime’s criminal past than to bury the truth that great progress has been made under the APNU+AFC Coalition Government in easing access to our hinterland communities.

Yours sincerely,
Cheryl Campbell
Research Student