Dear Editor,
I penned a letter which was published in another publication on 19 December 2011, in which I was basically finding out the status of the Aurora Land Development Project, and this was after more than five years, since early in 2006, when then President Bharat Jagdeo accompanied by former Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and other senior National and Regional Officials held a meeting at the Aurora Primary School, and promised the residents of that community to have more than 5400 acres of arable land developed and distributed to them, the landless, and who would have met the criteria and all of this were to happen, six months from that day.
It is important to note that during my tenure as a Regional Democratic Councillor, from the Alliance of Change (AFC) List of Candidates. The question about the progress of this much touted project was asked at many RDC meetings, and also of the Agriculture and Works Committee, a statutory committee of the RDC on which I also served; but on each occasion the answers were not informative, nor encouraging, and at times I got the distinct impression that the persons answering the questions were not honest in their reply or response.
In 2011 on 8 April, Jagdeo returned to the same venue, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud again with him, and other senior agriculture officials, and one new-comer in the person of Donald Ramotar. Of course this was shortly after he was selected to be the People’s Progressive Party Presidential Nominee. This time both Jagdeo and Ramoutar repeated the promise that was made to the more than 500 persons more than five years ago.
Both men spoke at length about this much important and long overdue project, their speeches were consistently punctuated by raucous applause and the hope and joy of the people were evident by their facial expression and body language, I included, but after more than ten years there is no evidence to suggest or indicate that positive thing had begun to happen or are happening as regards to this project that would have benefitted thousands of people directly and indirectly.
In another publication on Wednesday 1, July 2015, I again by way of a letter to the editor, enquired about the land promise to the people, by the current Head of State and it was under the caption “The Project that never was” and my hope was, that a comment by those who made those promises would have been made, but from then to now, the deafening silence continue, and the hope of the people has faded. The question to be asked is: Were these promises real? In light of the old adage ‘promises are made to be broken’. Promises are comforting words but only to fools; a promise is a debt, what are we to believe. This piece of information may help you form an opinion.
In retrospect it is reasonable to conclude that it was indeed a project that never was; I would bet my last penny that come 2020 more or similar types of promises would be made.
The 2017 Budget holds good for the Agriculture Section and there are high hopes for the people that are involved in the crops and livestock area. But producing more means getting more persons involved and occupation of land by the landless.
The empoldering of this much needed and touted project becomes more important and cannot be over emphasised.
Perhaps Minister Noel Holder can say if anything was or is in the pipeline regarding this project.
Sincerely,
Archie W Cordis
