Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has put systems in place to ensure that every Local Government community in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) has an excavator working continuously therein.
He gave this assurance on Saturday as five excavators were handed over to the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Six.
Residents had complained that after Mustapha had promised assistance to their communities and had arranged to have excavators working to clear clogged canals, those machines were on many occasions removed before completing the job.
Mustapha, who handed four mini-excavators and one large excavator to the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six on Saturday last — a total value of $100M — also met with farmers at Tarlogie on the Corentyne, who spoke of some of the issues affecting their community.
Fitzroy Thom, a farmer from neighbouring Cromarty Village, said promises made by Minister Mustapha were fulfilled, but Cromarty has not received the assistance promised.
“Last year they sent an excavator to fix a dam to provide drainage and irrigation at Cromarty. The excavator came and did a piece of work, and left halfway of the dam that really need to fix for farmers’ use to get access to their farms. A councillor from the NDC (Neighbourhood Democratic Council) – I don’t know if he owns the excavator — he take the excavator to do his own job. I went to the NDC and spoke to the Overseer, (but) up to now, the dam is undone,” Thom detailed to Minister Mustapha.
Addressing that issue, Mustapha said the decision-making by some needs to stop. He pointed out that while the Government is trying to provide relief to farmers in need, many of those farmers end up being dissatisfied.
“It seems the a few persons are making decisions behind our backs, and it is affecting not them, but the Government. We have to stop that immediately,” the Minister said.
The excavators which were handed over to the region will join the fleet already under the control of the RDC.
However, some farmers say that when machines go into communities to carry out work, officials on the ground redirect those machines elsewhere, and many farmers suffer as a result.
“I want to make it clear that we will do public work first, before any private farmer’s work. The farmers said they need to do the trench, they need irrigation and the dams to be fixed, so I will hand over this big machine to the Region, and the first set of work will be (done in the) Cromarty-Philippi area, and nobody or any NDC will have the authority to move it out,” Mustapha told the farmers.
He said that with Region Six having 19 NDCs and 3 towns, the fleet of excavators would be deployed in all the local authority areas, and remain there so that every community would be serviced adequately.
Two of the mini-excavators have been handed over to the Black Bush Polder NDC, and Mustapha said the new equipment would be permanently stationed in the polders to carry out drainage works in residential areas.
He also said that machines are oftentimes sent to do work following commitments made by officials, but those works are sometimes not completed before the machines are sent to other areas to carry out other works. He also told those in attendance that each excavator would service two polders.
Region Six has 10 mini-excavators, four of which are out of service. According to the Minister, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) would return them to a workable state, and those and the large excavators under the Region Six administration’s control would bring to twelve the total fleet in that region.
Each of the region’s twelve machines would be assigned to two local authority areas, and remain there, Minister Mustapha has ordered.
“For example, we have Johns/Port Mourant NDC and Whim/Bloomfield NDC. One machine will be assigned to those communities, and in that way, we will have more work done and we will have better supervision, and no one will have to move a machine from the community. So, we know that number 1 machine will be assigned to Johns/Port Mourant and Whim/Bloomfield,” Mustapha explained.
He also cautioned that soil removed from drains should not be left on road shoulders, and has charged the Regional Executive Officer with the responsibility of seeing that soil excavated is removed. (G4)
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