$3.5 M given to rebuild homes destroyed by landslide
During a visit to several communities in the mining town of Linden on Saturday by Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d), Mark Phillips, Lindeners voiced concerns about several community-related and personal issues, many of which the Prime Minister sought to address. Top on the list of complaints were the deplorable roads in the various communities, lack of job opportunities and inequitable distribution of scholarships resulting in many youths hailing from communities on the Wismar shore not benefiting from these opportunities.
Relative to job creation, he said the government is currently looking for investors to establish enterprises in Linden which will create jobs for the locals. Linden is one of the towns to always be listed as having a high unemployment rate. Since entering office, the current administration has created 1000 part-time jobs for residents as well as executed other measures which saw the creation of jobs, such as the signing of the multi-million-dollar Linden to Lethem road contract and other community infrastructural contracts.
For youths willing to further their studies, efforts to secure a government funded scholarship through the GOAL programme have proven futile. This was a major concern in the community of Wisroc. “I applied a lot of times, I applied to GOAL and the scholarship through PSM and all of them I was rejected, I was rejected one immediately after the portal close and long before the portal close,” one past student of The Bishops’ High related, while sharing that many of the youths in her community experienced the same thing.
The Prime Minister committed to having a working group formed to follow up on scholarship applications for youths in the region. This includes a visit to Linden by the GOAL team.
Other issues raised included security, small business grants and loans and ICT connectivity.
In West Watooka, the Prime Minister assessed the area’s deplorable back road while residents raised issues such as small farmer assistance and infrastructure development.
He concluded his visit with a meeting with residents of Block 42 Mackenzie, Linden, where he was also informed of concerns over the development of the local road system, as well as the occupancy and distribution of lands in the area.
The Prime Minister assured residents that Linden will not be left out of the transformational development that is taking place in Guyana.
He said the Government will continue to allocate funds for the rehabilitation of roads in the region.
“Linden is part of the development plan in terms of the infrastructural development for Guyana. So basically, all the issues that were raised, will be followed up by the subject minister and ministry.”
Meanwhile a cheque to the tune of $3.5 M was handed over the Regional Executive Officer Dwight John, to further assist in the reconstruction of homes for the displaced Bob and Fraser families.The homes were damaged by landslides last year at Poker Street in Wismar, Linden.
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