…on land giveaways
Your Eyewitness returns once again to the land giveaway scam pulled by the PNC for its favored few. Notice that none of the lands were given to ordinary supporters – the vaunted “small man” Burnham promised to transform into the “real man”. In fact while two of the big ones received several ACRES at Mocha on the EBD, the denizens from the Lombard St shacks were turned away from the same location!!
The avoided issues are insider knowledge for profiteering; and preferential treatment for jumping the 30,000 applications backlog line – not whether government officials or PNC supporters can apply for land. Of course they can! So the Director of the Ministry of the Presidency’s statement that the patrimony of Guyana belongs to all Guyanese is quite fatuous. The question is whether ordinary folks are allowed an equal opportunity to get their fair share of that patrimony!! Your Eyewitness dealt with the protestations and fulminations of SARA and ACDA’s Eric Philips so today he turns to the two parties – one fella who works out of the Office of the President and the husband of another – who received lands at Bohemia, in lower Corentyne near the Berbice Bridge.
The insider’s husband blatantly lied about receiving the Bohemia grant, so there’s nothing more that can be added to that bit of graft. The other one chose to respond in another newspaper – which from the beginning, refused to treat the revelations by the Opposition Leader seriously. It wasn’t surprising their puff piece didn’t pose any tough questions on the two identified issues. The fella admitted that the CH&PC had asked for bids on the lands below Crab Island – where the Berbice Bridge ends on its eastern side – after Minister Trotman had announced he’d be putting up a US$500million oil support facility on the island. These lands were very strategic and their values would’ve skyrocketed as the need for providing ancillary services rose.
The fella claims that Bohemia is far away from these lands that abut the mouth of the Berbice River to the Atlantic Ocean. What he didn’t say was all those lands – and some all the way to and including Bohemia – are owned by folks who have transports that were recorded all the way back in the 1920’s!! The lands form one of the largest coastal swamps in Guyana – and the CH&PC had the temerity to claim the private transports don’t extend to the Atlantic.
Since the CH&PC will be stuck in litigation on the other lands your Eyewitness suspects the allocated lands are between the Government School on the Public Rd. at Bohemia and the Atlantic – and thus the nearest state lands.
Just a mile away!!
…on the President’s arrogance
Some commentators are attributing Granger’s outrageous take on the Constitution and of the CCJ’s instructions on the need for he and the Opposition Leader to take a “consensual” approach to selecting the new GECOM Chair – that HE can also submit a list of candidates!! – as a “misinterpretation”. It’s nothing of the sort!! It’s simply another gambit in the series of gambits by Granger and crew to thumb their noses at not just the PPP opposition – but also the courts, including the CCJ.
This gambit falls right in the league of the one where the PNC asserted that 33 wasn’t greater than 32 to form a majority of 65!! Now it’s said every dog must have his day in court – but that assumes that the dog also has a valid case!! Surely the Courts cannot entertain cases that are clearly filed on concocted grounds – as delaying tactics to suit their agendas! You can bet your bottom dollar the PNC has a lawsuit in mind, on the list!!
Vexatious?
…on land use
Before leasing lands, the applicant has to convince the CH&PC their proposed use fits in with what the land’s been zoned for.
It’ll be interesting to enquire into the proposed use for the Bohemia lands.