Dear Editor,

On many occasions when I happened to visit the new Diamond housing scheme where some of my family and friends are living, I saw rapid development since the scheme was first implemented by former Minister of Housing and Water Shaik Baksh under the new housing policy on land and house lot distribution in March 2002.

At that time I was a member of the housing board, and the Central Housing and Planning Authority was generating millions of dollars on the sales of house lots, according to the financial statements presented to the board. Millions of dollars were approved for the development of necessary infrastructure like drainage, roads, lights, water, pavements, culverts, etc. House lots in the high income schemes were sold for $1.2 million with overgrown trees and bushes, middle income lands were sold for $500,000 and the low income lots were sold for $78,000 with the same conditions.

After the allocation of these lots, the allottees moved into the scheme and started to develop these lots by clearing the overgrown trees and bushes and filling with earth and sand which cost them large sums of money worth more than the cost of the lots. In 2002, the ministry embarked on a massive programme of housing schemes in all the ten regions, with the allocation of over 50,000 house lots and the establishment of 91 housing schemes. At present the cost of a house lot has increased under the same conditions of sale.

What amazed me from 2002 to 2014 is that some of the streets with their large potholes in Diamond New Housing Scheme are still impassable for vehicles; vehicles have to navigate almost in the drains to pass. The worst street I have seen with large potholes is Sixth Street behind the GT&T tower; it is almost like a trench when the rain falls, and you do not know where to drive your vehicle to get in and out of the streets. This scheme is fast becoming a secondary township with commercial centres and big, fancy houses which cost millions of dollars. The vehicles I saw there are the most expensive, and it will hurt your feelings to damage your car on these deplorable streets.

I can still see an abundance of cows roaming the main road and streets causing damage to the little infrastructure in the scheme. I asked myself where is all this money going from the housing budget and the sales from these house lots? All, if not most of the streets in these schemes are in the same deplorable condition throughout the country.

Yours faithfully,

Mohamed Khan