By Michel Outridge

ASSISTANT Vice-chairman of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Ayube Ahmed Bacchus Tajmool, who took the time off to engage the Pepperpot Magazine, highlighted happenings in the community.

He is a resident of Zorg-en-Hoop, a housing scheme within Blairmont which was established in the 1970s and it was divided into four settlements.

Blairmont is home to predominantly Indo-Guyanese and is the home of the Blairmont Sugar Estate, which comes under Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco).

Tajmool reported that residents depend heavily on the estate, which is considered the backbone of the community and all the lands are owned by Guysuco, except house lots.

He said that the estate has lots of skilled professionals, some of whom are highly qualified and who have received formal training from Guysuco’s Port Mourant Training School. He explained that the Port Mourant Training School has produced fitter machinists, instrument machinists, electricians, and sugar boiler operators, among others.

Tajmool added that Guysuco also sends workers to the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) to be ably qualified as agriculturists and he was one of those persons who benefitted.

He specialises in crop management and was employed at Blairmont Sugar Estate for 32 years before he parted ways with the estate.

Today, this Blairmont resident has a small business where he cultivates 30 acres of land and has cash crops of eschalot, lettuce, celery, pak choi, cabbage and bora.

Tajmool has wholesale buyers and also supplies five restaurants within the community.

He disclosed that Zorg-en-Hoop has 476 residents, while the entire Blairmont village has about 2,400 villagers.

The 55-year-old stated that there isn’t much land space, so residents do not rear livestock on a large scale.

Tajmool explained that recently he was overseas where he spent about five weeks and there life is different.

“There, you have to earn to spend, but here we can plant and do other things to bring in an income and still live a humble and comfortable life,” he said.

He reported that today, agriculture has taken a different turn because the young people don’t want to plant; the older folk did it and it provided for their families.

Tajmool has lots of shops, schools, garbage collection by the NDC tractor and trailer and other services, so many don’t have to leave the village unless they have other business to conduct.

He related that with Rosignol being a business hub with malls, a market, banks and other businesses, the residents of Blairmont utilise the services there rather than make the journey to the city or New Amsterdam.