The joint committee on depressed communities has recommended six projects from which President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNCR leader, Robert Corbin are to choose four to be carried out on an emergency basis.

The May 6 communiqué said that $60M was immediately available for their implementation.

The committee, co-chaired by the PPP/C’s Philomena Sahoye-Shury and the PNCR’s Clement Corlette, was reconvened following the May 6 communiqué.

The communities in which the projects are to be carried out are Kwakwani, Berbice River, Hogstye/Lancaster and Fyrish/Gibraltar in Region 6 and West Watooka and Victory Valley/Blueberry Hill in Region 10.

President Bharrat Jagdeo and then PNCR leader, the late Desmond Hoyte SC, during their dialogue process last year, agreed to the implementation of the Region 10 projects. However, with the suspension of their dialogue, the West Watooka project was undertaken but the one at Victory Valley was not.

The West Watooka project was part of a larger initiative the government was implementing in the area. Stabroek News understands too that the committee agreed that since one of the projects had been implemented the other ought to be done. Stabroek News has been reliably informed that work on the Victory Valley/Blueberry Hill project is due to start shortly.

The implementation of the projects identified by the committee was one of the issues of concern raised at the meeting between the representatives of President Jagdeo and Corbin when they met on Thursday.

The meeting was a continuation of their deliberations from Wednesday. Education Minister Dr Henry Jeffrey and Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon represented President Jagdeo while Lance Carberry, Deryck Bernard and James McAllister represented Corbin.

Stabroek News understands that they are to meet again next week after they have looked at the realities of the implementation of the decisions in the communiqué and the June 18 follow-up agreement.

Some of the issues being looked at include the arrangements for increasing the capacity of the Parliament Office to support the work of the committees of the National Assembly; the relocation of the Public Utilities Commission; the remuneration to be paid to the members of the newlycreated constitution commissions; the delay in putting in place the secretariat for the Ethnic Relations Commission and the appointments to the Ethnic Relations Tribunal.