Reynolds defends Operation Pride
Managing director of the National Housing Development Corporation, Milverton Reynolds, last week declared his full support for the Government’s controversial Operation Pride land distribution programme, stating that nothing or no one will “derail” it.
Addressing approximately 169 Pride beneficiaries who received certificates of possession for serviced lots at the Vineyard Community Centre, in St Elizabeth, Reynolds said the programme was firmly committed to changing the social and economic condition of the landless and would not be derailed or deterred.
He said that Pride was not only assigned a new minister and board of management, but was reorganised and positioned to provide affordable housing solutions in a legal, fair and transparent manner.
Operation Pride has been mired in controversy since its inception in the early years of the Patterson administration that started in 1993.
Opposition allegations of corruption, fraud and mismanagement have led to a Government-ordered probe into its operations that eventually resulted in the resignation of the minister of water and housing, Dr Karl Blythe last year.
Since then, the NHDC, which has responsibility for the programme, has been trying to burnish its image, while Government spokespersons have stoutly defended the programme by pointing out its benefit to poor Jamaicans.
Last week, Reynolds said that the programme was doing well, collecting approximately $383 million over the past 10 months. This, he said, surpassed the amount collected in the previous five years.
Total deposits collected now stand at over $800 million, Reynolds added.
Under Operation Pride, he said, the Government provided 30,010 housing solutions for the year, and hopes to complete another 10,000 serviced lots in the next financial year. In addition, he said, the Government, through the NHDC, has completed more than 4,800 certificates of title for distribution in 12 Pride schemes throughout the country. However, he added, his organisation was working hard to provide individual certificates of title for all 30,010 beneficiaries.
During the ceremony, 145 persons received certificates of possession under Phase Two of the Vineyard project, while another 19 were beneficiaries in the Lower-works project at New Town, Black River.