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….GPL says area not regularisedBy Leon SuseranSeveral residents of Glasgow Housing Scheme, East Bank Berbice aired their dissatisfaction about the unavailability of electricity in some sections of the community. They said that this is affecting their day-to-day lives and accused the Ministry of Housing of pussyfooting on the matter. They also accused the Guyana Power & Light Inc (GPL) of laying a burden on them to purchase posts for electricity,Fabian Orellana Chile Jersey, which cost over $300,000.One resident, Omawattie Rampertab said that over 100 residents are affected. She noted that officials from GPL visited the area early last year and promised to start work in April.“When April passed, they said August,Boston Red Sox Ted Williams Jersey, and in August we made another attempt to get their attention, and all the time we were in contact with the Regional Chairman, Zulfikar Mustapha,” she noted.She said that in November, another set of GPL officials from Georgetown visited and said that they cannot plant poles unless “the Minister [of Housing] gives okay.”According to the woman, while most of the scheme has electricity, other small patches of areas in the village do not have since the scheme developed over a period of time.The families mentioned that the schoolchildren are being affected since they cannot complete home assignments and projects for school.Other children in other parts of the village that access electricity, they claimed, “have an advantage over the others.”Another resident, Ruth Belle, a teacher, said that she has been suffering for over seven years.“Ninety five percent of the residents got lights but we don’t have any, we have children going to school. Nobody’s coming to tell us anything. We are frustrated residents and we are trying all avenues and no answers. We feel like we are on an island,” she noted. “Six posts GPL cannot install?” she asked.The residents said that they are getting the royal runaround from the Ministry of Housing in Georgetown and are fed- up.They said that GPL told them that if they have 10 persons, they should be able to raise over $300,000 for six lamp posts. The residents all agreed that this is most unreasonable.A father, Shawn David blasted the Minister of Housing,Vladimir Konstantinov Red Wings Jersey, Irfaan Ally.“So, I want know who is in authority. He (Ally) told them to give us the current and when we left his office it was a different story,” he noted. Several promises were made to the residents, he said, before the elections last year.“Is every five years, they making promises,” he noted. “Referring to the government’s one laptop per family programme,Marcus Kruger Jersey, David said that the government should keep the devices and give them electricity first, since the laptops are inoperable without electricity.Regional Chairman of Region Six, Zulfikar Mustpaha offered the following comment, “They raised the matter with me and I raised the concern with the Minister of Water & Housing. The Ministry of Housing and Water is responsible for putting down those infrastructures. The Minister told me that he will be looking at it and as soon as the budget is out, he will try to see some funds to put electricity.”Regional Manager of GPL,Candido Ramirez Mexico Jersey, Ayube Bacchus said, “We gotta be careful with that [area] because some of the areas are regularized and I presume that you are talking about the unregularized area. The reason why GPL cannot engage in any new services is because that area is not regularized and most of the residents cannot submit proof of legal ownership [of land] …they haven’t got that as yet.”“I’ve been seeing some of them with Agreements of Sale but that is just the first step to regularization and that is the main reason we can’t go in there with new services,” Bacchus explained.The area falls under the purview of the New Amsterdam Mayor & Town Council and Bacchus added,Trevor Cahill Cubs Jersey, “If the Town Council can give you plans for development this year, we will consider their plight. But they [the Town Council] can’t get the people there sitting like that. If they [Town Council] present a development plan,Kevin Faulk Patriots Jersey, we can look at that and see how we can work with that, and maybe able to consider them. GPL is not in the business of regularizing places, but providing electricity. Basically those residents in Pepper Street are squatting,” the GPL official stated.Efforts to contact the Mayor of New Amsterdam and Minister of Housing proved futile. |
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