No justification to cut housing budget- Ali

Housing Minister Irfaan Ali on Monday, asked the opposition to justify its proposed GY$130M cut to the Budgetary allocations to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA). APNU’s point man on Finance Carl Greenidge on Friday last circulated an amendment in the National Assembly, proposing to shave GY$130M from the GY$150M allocated to CH&PA, when the housing ministry’s estimates are considered later this week. Greenidge made the submission after attempts to use the opposition majority to cut the budgets of the Home Affairs Ministry, the Office of the First Lady, GuySuCo and other sectors failed, after the small AFC abstained from voting to reduce these allocations. Ali in an invited comment said the APNU cannot possibly show justification of this new proposed cut. He however warned that this cut is successful, can put the CH&PA’s 130 Plus staff on the breadline and stall processing of over 30,000 house lot applications. According to Ali, this move is no less vindictive than what was done to the allocations of GPL and the Speciality Hospital. The housing minister described the proposed cuts as “strategic”, which he said, goes to the heart of the government’s developmental thrust. He said these “unjustifiable” proposals come at a time when government is transforming home ownership in Guyana from mere owning a land to owning a complete home, pointing to the young professionals and low income housing programmes amongst others. Already the opposition has butchered several other allocations, including $5.2B for the electricity sector, $138M for GINA, $81M for NCN and $1.2B for the Speciality Hospital. Apart from the proposed housing cuts, the opposition also plans to slash allocations for the CJIA Expansion, the National Competitive Strategy and the Low Carbon Development Strategy.