Bagotville residents urged to form groups to benefit from Gov’t contracts

The residents of Bagotville, West Bank Demerara (WBD) were on Wednesday encouraged to form consortiums among themselves to take up jobs within their community.
Members of the community were recently engaged by Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill and Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha providing the space for residents to raise concerns about issues affecting them.
Among the issues disclosed, are the need for better drainage and irrigation, rehabilitation of community roads, installation of street lights, and the regularisation of squatting lands.
After listening to the concerns raised, Minister Mustapha committed to bringing relief to the residents through the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC).
He explained that the council was allocated funds from Guyana’s fiscal package of $1.146 trillion to spearhead works in the village,

“We will work with you to bring the kind of development that you want, you mention road, street lights, drainage and irrigation, farm to market road… All of us have to work together for the development of this country. We have a government that is very responsive, we have a President that is moving to different areas across this country.”
In addition, Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill urged the residents to form themselves into contracting groups and submit their names to the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for evaluation and approval.
Once approved, Edghill explained that the five groups would spearhead works such as the building of roads within the village. He noted that this move will ensure youths in the area have access to short-term employment while contributing meaningfully to their environment’s development.
“When you pull your resources together there is strength in togetherness… so, let’s come together and do things together, if there is anything I would say to you to help your forward movement is that everybody can’t become a contractor by themselves but they can come together and we can do things together and we’ll be prepared to facilitate that,” Edghill said.
The engagement with the residents of Bagotville came on the heels of a commitment made by the government during an ‘Open Day’ event at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC).
The initiative spearheaded by Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo allowed members of the public with various concerns to meet with government ministers.