By Tamica Garnett
IMPROVED health, education, economic development and youth development are among key areas on which the recently elected regional chairpersons for the various Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) plan to place their focus as they strive to develop their respective regions, going forward.
Nine of the 10 RDCs across the country elected the new chairpersons on Monday, with Regions One, Five, Six and Nine seeing re-election of their previous chairpersons, while Regions Two, Three, Four, Seven and 10 saw the injection of new blood.

At 30-years-old Daniel Seeram is possibly the youngest chairman elected on Monday, taking over from Genevieve Allen as the head of the Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) RDC.
Representing the youthful side, Seeram said he hopes he does the job justice and stands as an inspiration to other young people to take up leading roles in society.
“I feel very honoured and privilege to serve the Guyanese people. I am very proud of all my councillors and am willing to serve with all of them,” Seeram said of his ascension to the post, when he spoke with the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday.

“Things will be different, myself, along with many of the other councillors, we bring a new breed to the region and we plan to be exuberant, enthusiastic and we will work feverishly over the next couple of years,” he further pledged.

With 35 seats, Seeram will be heading the largest Council of the 10 regions and when it comes to this region, health, social cohesion, economic stability and education are the areas he will be targeting as he leads the region for the next five years.

“In health, what I want to do is focus on the relief of the general public in all sectors. A lot of people were put out of business in this pandemic, even with the $25,000 we at the RDC will need to see what we can do to further boost and buffer the man on the ground and assist them within their situation,” Seeram said
He added: “One of the major issues that I want to deal with is curbing the COVID-19 pandemic; we also want to foster social cohesion and to establish economic stability in the region; in education, for the region, we want to ensure that we get education to everyone that needs it.”
It is the function of the RDCs to administer services such as health, education, and public works in the region; in addition to coordinating activities with the local democratic councils; and identifying economic projects and assisting central government in executing works necessary for the development of the respective regions.
In Region Nine, (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), Bryan Allicock said he is grateful to his councillors for re-electing him to the post and giving him another term to serve the people of the region.

YOUNG BLOOD
“The people know me and I know the people. We have a beautiful team with a lot of youngsters and I am happy that we have a lot of young brains coming in, because these are the ones that are going to take over from us older ones someday. I love to have the youths on board; they have a lot of energy,” Allicock said.
Allicock will be heading a council which has 15 seats, of which six seats were won by the APNU+AFC and the remaining nine were won by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Himself a PPP/C candidate, Allicock stressed that he is looking forward to working along with all of the councillors and seeing the councillors from the various parties unite to put the development of the region first.

He further highlighted the importance of the input of youths in regional development, noting that focus on youths is among the areas on which he plans to concentrate in the region.
“Every single one of my councillors noted that we need unity to develop the region and Guyana as a whole. We will be concentrating on developing our youths, while other aspects we will be concentrating on include our tourism, and agriculture,” Allicock said.

Allicock noted that several infrastructural works are on the schedule for the region and with just three months remaining in the year, he hopes to hit the ground running.
“We have some of the major renovations of buildings and bridges. We have road constructions, especially the farm-to-market road in certain villages, so that the residents can have access to it. We need to get access to the villages, whether rain or sun, so we need to get those done,” he noted.

Over in Region Seven, businessman, Kenneth Williams will head that region’s RDC, and though he is the new to role of an RDC councillor, the father of two has already racked up a few years of life in politics, being a current municipality councillor for the Bartica township, a position in which he has served for the past four years.

GRATEFUL
“I am grateful to God and to the RDC councillors who put their confidence in me,” Williams said of his election.
He shared that it was his time serving on the Bartica Council and watching the development that the town was able to achieve over the past few years, which motivated him to take it to the next level.

“We would have seen tremendous growth over the last couple of years at the town council, so based on that experience I would have gotten the passion to serve even higher. I would have recognised that more was needed in the region Region Seven is not just Bartica,” Williams conveyed.

“I have that drive to see the improvement in the life of the people; there is a drive for development, to see education, business, and sporting facilities all across the region being improved. There’s a drive all around and because of that drive I decided to do it,” he further added.
He said in that region he will be placing emphasis on education and youths as well.