–Dr. Jagdeo says; sets record straight that gov’t does not discriminate

THE convenient advocacy for Afro-Guyanese by Opposition-aligned operatives has been called out by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who exposed their agenda of wanting to mobilise Afro-Guyanese to push their agenda.

During a press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, Dr. Jagdeo maintained his stance that the PPP will not allow the allegations of discrimination levelled against them to bear fruit.
Social media commentator Rickford Burke’s feathers were ruffled after the New York Diaspora distanced itself from his stance and instead embraced President Dr. Irfaan Ali.

In a post on Facebook, Burke accused the PPP government of boycotting Afro-Guyanese businesses, organisations, events and other infractions.
Dr. Jagdeo addressed these untruths, starting with the removal of Mocha squatters who were hindering construction of the Eccles-to-Diamond road link.

“Today that highway is built; built now within four years of us being in government. [It] has changed the lives of people on the East Bank; it has opened up more lands to many people, new businesses are going there, thousands of new jobs are being created,” Dr. Jagdeo said, as he explained that the value of the properties within the back of the cane fields have “skyrocketed”.

MOCHA IS NO DIFFERENT
Following the transformation seen at the back of the cane fields, the PPP General Secretary noted that Mocha Village is “no different”, as it was deep in the backlands, and because of that highway, the properties are now front land.

Speaking more on what occurred in Mocha, Dr. Jagdeo stated: “People were squatting on the alignment, so we had to remove them. They didn’t have title; so they were squatting. They didn’t have titles or leases to the land; so we found 35 structures along the alignment.

“To date, 28 of those persons of the 35 now got the plot of land elsewhere for free. Not just the land was given to them free, but we also did all the processing of the titles to the land for free. We paid to those 28 persons who had structures along and alignment compensation of $250 million and $5.1 million in crops that they had.

“That is how we treated the people who were on the public land that was part of the alignment for a major highway that was going to transform the whole of the East Bank,” the PPP General Secretary firmly stated.

He noted that the government did not “throw” these people off and abandon them, but instead worked with them. Dr. Jagdeo said that they will also work with those persons who are on the alignment off of the new Demerara Harbour Bridge.
Staying on the topic of the Mocha squatters, Dr. Jagdeo related that there were eight persons out of the 35 that refused to accept compensation from the government, but instead chose to file legal proceedings.

Pointing to a news article in 2017, which read: “Confronted by weeping residents and human barricades, the Central Housing and Planning Authority has temporarily aborted a demolition exercise in Sophia that targetted squatter houses and structures erected on government’s reserve,” Dr. Jagdeo indicated that this is the Opposition’s track record with squatters.

“They didn’t need it for a road, but they were just breaking down people’s [homes]… This was just a reserve,” he said.
Reflecting on another instance of this, Dr. Jagdeo said: “This was all under APNU period, just recently; this was their track record with so-called Afro-Guyanese.”