Payne: Gov’t has done nothing for people of White Hill

The present Democratic Labour Party government has done absolutely nothing to date, to alleviate the suffering of the folks at White Hill, St. Andrew. As he made his contribution on the Appropriation Bill, 2017 this week in the House of Assembly, Member of Parliament for St. Andrew, George Payne, noted the above. He described the present administration as “an uncaring government”, given the fact that government had only made promises to address the badly deteriorated road at White Hill, as well as relocate residents, but that these promises have not been fulfilled to date. “You would have thought that this Government would be calling on us at this particular point in time for cooperation [and that they] could be considered a caring government, but look at the areas of neglect. You only have to come to the Constituency of St. Andrew for a good example. Total neglect! Total neglect!” Payne told the House. “You had a situation in 2014, where you had bad weather in local terms, making it difficult for people to move from place to place, wiping out the road, wiping out the people’s houses and they did absolutely nothing in order to alleviate the problems of the people in White Hill. Absolutely nothing,” he charged. “We had a situation where they came with the Estimates for 2015-2016 and certain funds, certain amounts were allocated – nothing happened! Last year, nothing happened! This year, nothing happened! Not a caring government – that is the Democratic Labour Party,” he stressed. To make matters worse Payne said, land that was acquired by the present government to house displaced White Hill residents, was sold for economic purposes. “Mr. Speaker, it was not sold to any person like you, it was not sold to any person like anybody in here… it is the first time in the history of this country that land was acquired for residential purposes and then was disposed of,” he further lamented. “They have not even organised a Town Hall Meeting for the people in White Hill. Not even a Town Hall Meeting. I don’t know what the Minister of Housing [is doing]. I cannot believe that he would sit down and allow a transaction like that to go through. I cannot believe it. It is outrageous! It is one of the worse things I have seen in this country.” Payne said. (RSM)