~~Adz:Right~~Charlestown Nevis (August 25, 2006) Residents of Cox, Beaumont and Montpelier on Thursday got the assurance from their Area Representative, the Hon Mr. Hensley Daniel that the Nevis Reformation Party-led Administration would do all in its power to maintain their campaign promises.
He was at the time thanking the constituents for their support and updating them on the progress of the Administration since taking office. The meeting was the second in a series of planned island wide town hall gathering to listen to the concerns and needs of the residents.
Minister Daniel who was accompanied by the Minister of Physical Planning, Agriculture, Lands and Housing, the Hon Mr. Robelto Hector, Junior Minister of Audit and Urban and Rural Development, the Hon Mr. Dwight Cozier as well as the Legal Advisor, Mr. Patrice Nisbett, outlined a number of projects that the Administration had undertaken so far.
He spoke of the number of students who received scholarships from the government so far; the ongoing housing projects that were previously started would be completed; the revamping of the education system; the implementation of Parish Councils; the sale of government lands and the number of job opportunities that would become available in the next couple of months.
Mention was also made of the opportunity which existed for duty free concessions of building materials for the construction of apartments etc, for World Cup 2007.
Questions and comments came from the gathering. In response to the promised of free text book for secondary school students, Minister Daniel expressed that the time to respond to the free text books for the upcoming school term was very short and a number of things had not been completed. He however, assured the gathering that the Administration's last request was that the parents take the book receipts to Mr. Ashley Farrell, Cabinet Secretary to be refunded.
The Ministers also spoke about the need for training and that it was one of the Nevis Reformation Party's priorities. Minister Hector said that he was sending a clear signal that training was important as he called upon the parents to begin to look at the training needs of their children. Accordingly, the Area Representative pointed out that he had a full scholarship in his possession from the Cuban Government in the area of Architecture.
~~Adz:Left~~Meantime a new board has been put in place to give an account of the status of the Land and Housing Development Cooperation was made known. Minister Hector told the gathering that the new board comprised of himself as Chairman, Mr. Patrice Nisbett, Mr. Lloyd Lescott, Mrs. Millan Farrell, Mr. Audra Barrett, Mr. Eustace Nisbett Jr. and Mr. Jean Liburd.
Though the new board had certain areas to deal with initially, Minister Hector said that his main concern was to locate all the lands in Nevis that belonged to the government so that they could begin the process of selling the lands at a cheaper rate. He also said that the 12 percent Administrative Fee that the Land and Housing Cooperation was collecting on the purchase of land/house would immediately be abolished.
Legal Advisor, Mr Patrice Nisbett sought to explain why the prices of land were so expensive. He mentioned that the Federal Government had imposed new legislation in 2005 that causes stamp duty to be 12 percent on the purchaser. The Nevis Island Administration he said is trying to get some adjustment for the island of Nevis and to put in place the previous arrangement where the vendor and the purchaser each paid 6 percent.
