| – party urges Govt. to return to table for miners’ talksBy Leonard GildarieOne day after thousands of Barticians took to the streets over new mining proposals, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has accused the government of lying to Guyanese on its public consultations that were conducted last year for the implementation of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).Speaking at a press conference held by the party yesterday at the Sidewalk Café, Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan expressed that it is clear the miners were not genuinely consulted at the LCDS level when it became known that certain regulations would have been implemented.Miners’ reactions to the proposals were understandably spontaneous since their very livelihoods are under threat, the Member of Parliament said.Last year,NFL Jerseys China, government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Norway that will see US$250M coming to Guyana over the next five years, for measures to actively protect this country’s forests from degradation.AFC officials at the press conference at Sidewalk Café yesterday.In December,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds wrote the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) instructing that miners give a six-month notification before commencing operations.However, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) during a meeting called by President Bharrat Jagdeo at State House earlier this year has expressed their concerns over the proposals.The President, in nullifying the letter, then appointed a special body, the Land Use Committee,Anthony Steen Dolphins Jersey, chaired by Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, to consider new regulations including the six-month notice proposal. Sitting on that committee also were miners’ representatives and the Guyana Forestry Commission.On Monday, miners and residents of Bartica and its environs shut down that community to force home their point. This was despite a meeting at Bartica on Saturday with a government delegation led by Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud. During that meeting, Bartica signaled its intentions to still go ahead with Monday’s strike and warned opposition parties to stay away from using the protests for political mileage.Yesterday, according to AFC’s leader, Raphael Trotman,Cheap Jerseys Free, the party was keeping abreast with the miners issue and was even present in meetings at Bartica last week.Over the last few weeks, there were TV programmes in Essequibo and newspaper articles on the mining issues,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, the official disclosed.Expressing the party’s concern, the party leader noted that many of the miners throughout the country are saddled with loans and equipment with Guyana’s economy heavily entwined with that of the mining industry.Areas of transportation and the aircraft industry will be hard hit from any regulations that are not well thought out, he said, urging that government return to the table for more talks before sending the final proposals as announced, by this week.According to Ramjattan, the Norwegian team during their visit to Guyana late last year had met with the AFC and made it quite clear that the LCDS should not affect the livelihood of the people of Guyana.“With Guyana being a third world country, the President should not take it for granted that he can report that he has implemented new regulations in keeping with the LCDS to meet with compliance requirements of Norway’s MOU,” Ramjattan emphasized.This, he said, is not how the Scandanavian country would deal with its people, and by extension, the people of Guyana.Echoing those sentiments, Trotman pointed out that the national interest of Guyana would take precedence over the MOU of Norway.“It does not take a school child to tell you what has to go…the needs of the people can’t be secondary.”The party also slammed the government’s performance in what it called the bedrock industries which are facing severe problems.“One only has to scan the performance of the bedrock industries of Guyana to realise that PPP/C ineptitude and mismanagement are causing crisis after crisis to erupt from one industry to another. Over the past months we have had severe dislocations in the sugar, bauxite,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, and rice industries.”The most recent instance was manifested by the presence of 4,000 people taking to the streets in Bartica to protest the government’s “arrogant and misguided handling of the most precious resource in the mining sector – the people.”The AFC stressed that Guyana belongs to all Guyanese with or without the funds from Norway under the LCDS.“We need to make mining more environmentally and economically sustainable. Meaningful consultations should begin immediately to address the genuine concerns of the miners and the thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihood. The take it or leave it attitude of the Jagdeo administration is being rejected as was witnessed yesterday (Monday). The AFC stands in solidarity with the workers of Guyana.” |
