While “prosperity” is a reoccurring motif in past PPP/C budgets, the events that unfolded at Mocha, East Bank Demerara (EBD) weeks ago, render the theme nothing but an empty promise. This is according to Opposition Parliamentarian, Nima Flue-Bess as she took the podium on Monday morning to add her voice to the first round of debates on the $782B budget tabled in the House last week.
Flue-Bess started her presentation with a rendition of “The Song of Guyana’s Children” and pinned images on the podium of a bulldozed area at Mocha, where equipment and police were deployed several weeks ago to remove almost 30 families from an area earmarked for a multibillion-dollar alternative road.
According to the Parliamentarian, budgets are expected to give hope, but taxpayers’ funds were used to bulldoze an entire settlement.
“The budget ought to give hope, but where is the hope? The actions of the government destroyed homes. Pigs were buried alive, and fruit-laden trees were killed when the government sent in its weapons of mass destruction,” she told the House. “Budgets ought to bring hope, not destroy people’s lives,” the Parliamentarian said.
She added that while “the government constantly touts prosperity” and “One Guyana”, people continue to face marginalisation and disrespect. The legislator said that she expects local democratic arms to be placed at the forefront in 2023 of addressing issues in communities and not playing second fiddle to government activists.
Tensions flared at Mocha weeks ago after heavy-duty equipment turned up at the location to demolish several structures said to be on lands reserved for the thoroughfare. More than 28 families have since been relocated after the government opted to offer “compensation” despite its claims that the residents were there illegally.
The Opposition has claimed that the lands are ancestral, noting that with the placement of the road, spaces in the disputed area could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.
The claim has led to at least seven families standing their ground and refusing free homes and arable lands from the government. Concurring with and supported by the opposition, the remaining residents began demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in “settlements”. The government has refused, contending that the lands are state reserves and were not procured by Afro-Guyanese ancestors.
Further, the administration noted that the presence of the “squatters” stymies developmental works geared at the de-escalation of traffic woes along the East Bank Demerara corridor. The proposed road is expected to bring relief to tens of thousands of residents who daily traverse the bottleneck-rife thoroughfare.
