March 28, 2024

INFO 10

THE TRUTH IN BLACK AND WHITE

President Ali’s words must be taken with a pitch of salt

Dear Editor,

The announcement by President Ali about the building of 1000 houses in Linden must be viewed with a critical eye.

It must be stated that hundreds of Lindeners benefited under the APNU-AFC Coalition from the regulation and sale of lands for housing from NICIL that the Ali government had now stopped, with allegations of them wanting to take back those lands from hundreds of Linden people.

In 23 years in government, the PPP Administration has never built one house in Linden even though the said President Ali, was Minister of Housing at the time.

Countless house lots were sold at exuberant prices yes, but many who wanted to build had to put in their own infrastructure.

We do welcome any proper housing initiative that will give the people of Linden good quality affordable houses, but President Ali has not indicated who will get those houses and we don’t want to conclude because it’s Linden, it’s for Lindeners. President Ali as Housing Minister, distributed house lots so his party would gain a political advantage in several communities.

If Ali is serious about creating employment opportunities in the region, he must first address the RUSAL bauxite workers issue, where they were dismissed wrongfully.

President Ali has made many public statements that were not accurate and in many instances were changed by Vice President Jagdeo. Some of the fallacious statements include : Every household will get $25000 COVID-19 cash grant, every public servant will get $25000.00, every front-line worker will get an increase, all government resources to be used to get justice for the Henry boys and Harish Singh. In this regard, Editor, Ali’s word should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Jermaine Figueira

Member of Parliament