WESTERN BUREAU — OD Ramtallie, coordinator of government’s Relocation 2000 project, this week refuted reports that beneficiaries would be determined on the basis of political affiliation.

“We are not moving PNP or JLP people. We are moving people,” Ramtallie said.

He was speaking at a meeting called, Wednesday, to address concerned residents of Railway Gardens who are to benefit from the project.

The meeting was called by People’s National Party councillor/caretaker for the area, Milton Russell, who said a number of people “known as PNP supporters” had reportedly had their names struck from the 1999 survey of those to benefit from the housing project.

But Ramtallie contended Wednesday, that the project was being undertaken on a phased basis and everyone would be given an opportunity to benefit, provided he or she fulfilled his or her obligations to the National Housing Trust.

Relocation 2000 forms part of the government’s thrust to address the country’s housing needs. Under the project, residents of three depressed communities — Mona Commons in Kingston, Seville in St Ann and Railway Gardens/Railway Lane in Montego Bay — will be relocated to new homes.

Some Seville residents have already moved into their new homes.

But in Railway Gardens, the area named as the pilot project, a raft of problems have delayed the project.

But Ramtallie reaffirmed Wednesday that the relocation of the beneficiaries to their new homes at Providence Heights would begin this September and that the project was on target. Already, he said, over 160 of the 300 houses were completed.