Stabroek News
June 19, 2001

President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte yesterday agreed to meet the committees on depressed communities and on bauxite resuscitation when they met at the Office of the President. The meeting yesterday was the tenth in the series of meetings between them since the March 19 elections.

When they meet the committee on depressed communities, it will be to urge "it to make timely proposals for the implementation of projects in the four identified areas", according to a joint release issued after the talks.

The areas identified for priority treatment are Buxton and Enterprise on the East Coast Demerara and De Kinderen and Met-en-Meerzorg on the West Coast Demerara. The committee has already visited these villages.

Their meeting with the bauxite committee, according to the statement, will be "to receive and review the recommendations of that committee."

Both committees were the subject of comment by Hoyte yesterday at a Congress Place headquarters press conference. He claimed that some of the PPP/C appointees "seem bent on nullifying the clear objectives which the President and the PNC/R Leader would like to see achieved."

Hoyte asserted that the committee on depressed communities "seems not to be seized of the urgency which the two leaders have assigned" it, blaming this largely on "the intransigence" of some of the President's appointees.

The members of the committee co-chaired by Philip Allsopp and Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Water, Philomena Sahoye-Shury, are Odinga Lumumba, F Jafarally, Clyde Roopchand, Harrinarine Nawbatt, Theo Earle, James McAllister, and Urmia Johnson with Clement Johnson as her alternate and Bert Carter.

The bauxite committee is co-chaired by Robeson Benn and Professor Clive Thomas. The other members of the committee are Lance Carberry, Claude Saul, Odinga Lumumba, Ron Webster and Kim Kissoon. It was mandated among other things to give priority consideration to the Alcoa Concept Paper for a Restructured Bermine and Aroaima Bauxite Company and to submit a report within a month.

That report was submitted on June 9 with two sets of recommendations and Benn headed a group which submitted one of the two sets of recommendations.

At the press conference, Hoyte said that the almost two-month-old talks with President Jagdeo were showing signs of tension and strain but vowed to persist with it as long as there appears to be usefulness in it.

"Let it be said that if the dialogue fails don't let the failure be attributed to me or anything like that. I will persist as long as there appears to be usefulness in it."