Cheaper rice on sale from tomorrow
Georgetown, GINA, January 27, 2008
Three agencies affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture will be retailing rice at $325 per gallon in an effort to stabilize the price for the staple after it shot up over the past weeks.
Rice will be sold daily to consumers beginning at 10:00h at the following locations: Guyana Shop-Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), Robb and Alexander Streets, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Cowan Street, Kingston, and the Guyana Rice Project Management Unit (GRPMU), 18 Brickdam
This intervention was discussed on Thursday last with Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and millers who will be required to make rice available in agreed quantities for local consumption which is about 4, 500 to 5, 000 tonnes per month.
It is expected that approximately 8, 000 to 9, 000 tonnes of rice will be available on the local market within the next month. Additionally, the projected target for the first crop of this year is 129,000 tonnes which is expected to be available within weeks.
Government has been assisting farmers to increase production through several interventions to help them deal with the high cost of input. Among these are a reduction of the C-Tax/Excise Tax on fuel and exemption of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on fertilizers, pesticides, harrows, ploughs, and other machinery and spare parts used in rice cultivation.
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President Jagdeo returns to ECD
-meet residents of three communities
Georgetown GINA January 27, 2008
President Bharrat Jagdeo today met with hundreds of residents of Mon Repos, Good Hope and Lusignan, East Coast Demerara where he advised that members of the communities join the Neighbourhood Policing Groups to strengthen community security.
President Bharrat Jagdeo met with residents to examine ways to make their communities safer in light of the recent attack by gunmen on the village of Lusignan which left 11 persons dead and two wounded.
He said that all countries rely on the Police and army for the security of its citizens but, given Guyana’s small security force it would be impossible to station ranks in all the villages of the country since if this were done, with the present strength only 10 percent of the villages would be protected at any one time.
President Jagdeo at meeting with residents of Mon Repos
President Jagdeo said that his Government has always encouraged the formation of Community Policing Groups (CPG) to assist in the protection of communities. These groups have been effective in some communities but others are not functioning as they should.
In response to residents’ complaints that the police patrols should do more in offering protection from criminals, President Jagdeo told the residents, “We can all complain but you need to do something, not only expect the police to get more aggressive and go after the criminals. At the community level you have to do your own part and the only way you can do that is if you are trained and equipped.”
A section of the crowd at Good Hope meeting
Addressing the reluctance of some residents to join the security services, Jagdeo said that the Disciplined Services Commission Report submitted to Parliament stated that the forces were not balanced in terms of ethnicity. He lamented that some persons complain that the salary is too small and they will not join the force, but queried how could the money be good for some and not for others.
Government, he said, was trying to establish Neighbourhood Police to address the concerns of others of being transferred from their village when they enlist. Six hundred paid positions were created and only 200 applications were received.
President Jagdeo meeting with residents of Good Hope.
The meeting today he said was aimed at finding alternatives to assist in securing the villages. Residents were asked to give suggestions as to what could be done in this regard.
Several suggestions were put forward by the residents. They included: changing the law making it lawful for all citizens to bear arms, arming all businessmen so that they could defend themselves and neighbourhood against attacks; burning down the bushes in the backlands of the villages since the gunmen use the bushes as cover to gain access to Buxton and the formation of a special squad to hunt down the gunmen.
President Jagdeo meeting with residents of Lusignan
Other suggestions included paying stipends to persons involved in the CPGs as an incentive and accelerating the processing of approval for arming members.
There was a suggestion that hanging should recommence and President Jagdeo assured residents that he supports hanging any person found guilty of murdering a defenseless innocent person.
Since becoming President, four death warrants were signed but the entire process is tied up in the courts since the persons had approached the courts to stop the hanging. The executive has to submit to the decisions of the court, he said.
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