Former governors of the department, and those who participated in the National Development Plan panel and its impact on Huila, pointed out that the candidates for the regional elections must know the PND, in turn both the next governor and the mayors must take into account the PND on his political route.
Newspaper of Huila, Huila
By: Gloria Camargo
That the development of the department prevail under the knowledge of the National Development Plan, should be the slogan of the candidates for both the Governor of Huila, and the municipal administrations.
This was established by some former governors of the department, who added that in the current work path of President Gustavo Petro, called ‘Colombia, World Power of Life’, for the four-year-old from the National Government, Huila must adjust.
It should be remembered that according to the National Planning Department, its purpose is to “lay the foundations for the country to become a leader in the protection of life, based on the construction of a new social contract that promotes the overcoming of injustices and historical exclusions, the non-repetition of the conflict, the change in our way of relating to the environment, and a productive transformation based on knowledge and in harmony with nature”.
A cry of hope
Regarding the issue, Jaime Bravo Motta, governor of Huila for the period 1998-2000, indicated that “the most important thing is that the National Development Plan of President Gustavo Petro included some important regional initiatives.
Initiatives that had been thought of for many decades as a hope and as a clamor of the Huilense community. One or another project at the national level has always been included in the different projects of the Development Plans and previous governments, but in this PND 34 projects have been embodied, almost all the works in the road part, in the general infrastructure part of the department, in the airport part, the agricultural part and even in the irrigation districts”, he pointed out.
At the same time, he added that what really “interests us is that these projects can crystallize. The issue will be management from now on, that the next mayors and the next governor of Huila begin to articulate all their projects with the National Government, because otherwise there would be frustration.
It should be remembered that among the projects for the region and that were highlighted in Petro’s navigation chart, are the Florencia – Resinas – Guadalupe (Huila) highway, improvement of the La Plata – Belén – Puracé – Popayán corridor, Colombia highway intervention – La Uribe (Meta), as well as the intervention and improvement of the La Jagua aerodrome in Garzón for cargo transportation services and the expansion of the airport infrastructure in Pitalito.
“There are 33 projects that have been included in the National Development Plan ‘Colombia, World Power of Life’ 2022 – 2026, so the important thing is that the initiatives can be technically structured so that the government enters to participate in that and we, Let’s lead from Huila, its crystallization too”, added Bravo Motta.
The funding challenge
Likewise, the first governor of the department of Huila by popular vote for the period 1992 – 1994, Julio Enrique Ortiz Cuenca pointed out that the challenge will not only be the articulation, but also that the next leaders manage to specify the financing of future projects.
“All the mayors and the next governor, who will be elected by the opitas in the next October elections, will have to correlate their development plans within the policies of the National Government. In addition, to be able to seek not only its execution, but its financing, which is very important, ”he established in his first place.
“This is a very centralized country where a large part of the projects in the regions have to be carried out with the national contribution, and for that, it is necessary to integrate these policies and that is what we were analyzing today, that in addition to the projects that are already related and where in Huila there are talks of 34 initiatives to execute them because there are public policies in terms of primary health, in terms of tertiary roads that are rural roads, in terms of alternative energies, which will have to be integrated with the regional development plans of the future presidents”, he added.
Among the priority projects, Ortiz Cuenca said that “there are many priority initiatives here. We have as a priority that Huila’s communication with the Pacific and with the Colombian ports be a reality for the development of the department.
In agricultural, livestock and mining matters we have a big problem and that is that the transport to go to the ports of Buenaventura and to the ports of Barranquilla, to speak only of those two in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, represent the costs are very high ”, for which he stressed the importance of “that all the projects that have been carried out for decades, in this government are able to crystallize”.
It should be noted that the project concerning the “structuring and adjudication of the railway connection between Neiva in the department of Huila, and the Central Railway Corridor (Dorada – Santa Marta)” is contained in the PND.
Regarding agricultural production, he stressed that a “comprehensive plan for productive development in the department of Huila must be made, looking at the vocation of the soils. What are soils good for? And that in this way it is possible to give all the support to the people who are working the land, so that they really put it to production. Likewise, a great push should be given to health, especially to primary and preventive health and to education”, he concluded.
Therefore, from the National Planning Department it was established that “the ordering model must promote environmental sustainability, productivity and quality of life. In this context, importance will be given to functional relationships between municipalities and progress will be made in a model of differential decentralization”.
Given this proposal, the National Government indicated that “the multipurpose cadastre needs to be accelerated, including its updating and implementation to stimulate the land market, reduce informality, have greater clarity on factor relationships, reduce conflicts associated with land tenure, the land and, in addition, strengthen territorial finances”.
This is because the legal insecurity of tenure can reduce public benefits from the land market, hinders access to credit, environmental and social management of the property, and the consolidation of comprehensive rural reform.
Therefore, it is proposed that the transformation advance towards the resolution of conflicts for the use and availability of land and water, and in the restoration of strategic ecosystems.
“This process would contribute to optimizing the ordering around water to transform the countryside, increasing productivity, with social and environmental justice. The territorial order allows to control the indiscriminate expansion of the agricultural frontier, the colonization of vacant lots and the illegal appropriation of lands with practices that deforest and mistreat the ecosystems”, according to the DNP.