By Sue-Ann Wayow
PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley does not care about ex-Caroni (1975) Ltd workers who toiled the land to bring in a state income for the country.
He showed this in his behaviour towards them last week when he drove past some of them while going to a function in Couva.
This is according to Member of Parliament for Couva South Rudranath Indarsingh.
On February 14, almost 100 former workers who have not yet received their promised land protested outside the Nutrimix compound, in Couva where Dr Rowley was attending the opening of a $60 million hatchery.
The workers were hoping to get some acknowledgement from the prime minister who drove by without stopping.
Speaking on Monday night at the United National Congress (UNC) Virtual Report, Indarsingh spoke at length of the history surrounding the ex-workers since the closure of the sugar factory in 2003 by the Patrick Manning administration.
Indarsingh said, “Last week, when Rowley drove past the ex-sugar workers and he went to open the hatchery of his friend and sidekick the owner of Nutrimix who is also the president or the chairman of Caribbean Airlines (Ronnie Mohammed), who is in Qatar with him today, Rowley snubbed every sugar worker.”
He said, “You must never forget in 2015, Rowley came as the Opposition Leader to a meeting in Southern Main Road, Couva and told the sugar workers that if you give the PNM a chance in Central Trinidad, you will get your lands.”
Indarsingh said to date it was the former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar who distributed most of the land owed to the workers.
Persad-Bissessar was scheduled to deliver the feature address but Indarsingh said she was engaged in a critical meeting instead.
He claimed, “The real agenda of the PNM is not to give humble sugar workers their lands for agriculture and residential purposes, they want to keep that land so they could facilitate developments and projects for their friends, their financiers and the one per cent.”
Work in progress
Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat had told AZPNews.com that the matter was being dealt with by the Estate Management and Business Development Management Company Ltd (EMBD) and he had asked the EMBD to check on the status of the delivery of the 441 outstanding plots.
On Monday, he added, “The final survey plan for the site was submitted to the Director of Surveys was recently submitted for approval. Once approved EMBD will be in a position to issue leases to the ex-Caroni workers. I have asked our PS (permanent secretary) to check with our acting Director of Surveys on the matter.”
