Caption: UNC deputy political leader Dr Roodal Moonilal, second from left, with UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, third left, at the UNC cottage meeting at the Penal Secondary School on Monday. Photo: Facebook
By Prior Beharry
THE recent 12-day trip that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley made to Ghana and India will yield neither a pound of yam nor a bottle of ghee.
This according to Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal speaking at a United National Congress (UNC) cottage meeting at the Penal Secondary School on Monday evening.
He said crime was spiralling out of control in the country with five murders in one day and Dr Rowley “gallivanting and loitering all over the world.”
In Ghana, Dr Rowley was the guest of honour of the 25th anniversary of the ascension of Monarch of the Ashanti Kingdom, The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. He also met with the President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo.
And in India, he met Mumbai businessmen and toured businesses of the Reliance Group. Dr Rowley was also at the toss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) game between the Mumbai Indian and the Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday and visited the Shree Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai last Saturday before returning home on Sunday.
At the UNC meeting, Dr Moonilal said, “He spent time on two continents. He was invited to nothing. Nothing, nothing; he went to Ghana, he went to India.
“We will not get a pound of yam and we will not get a bottle of ghee. You will get from that trip nothing.”
On his return from India, Dr Rowley confirmed that the government was giving the Mumbai Indian, owned by the Ambani family, 30-acres of land, originally allocated to Pantribago, at Trincity for a cricket academy. He said last month that this would be a private public arrangement.
Dr Moonilal said, “While in India not one representative of the Indian government met him.The fella was loitering, he went and meet some regional head somewhere. Man, if he wanted to meet the head of a region, he could have come and meet the mayor from Siparia (Doodnath Mayrhoo who was in the audience), he’s the head of a region too.”
He said Dr Rowley spent $400,000 on the trip “to watch a cricket match and go to a temple.”
Dr Moonilal added, “In this country we have temple and we have cricket. He spent $400,000 wasting time. I think he met a businessman son or something.”
He said, “But what is important with that is that he is asking a family in India to build a cricket academy in Trinidad and want to give to them 30 acres of land in Trincity land that was already a earmark for a solar farm… They took it away from a solar farm and want to give it… Pantribago lands and surrounding the areas because I think there’s a Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) right in Tarouba.”
Dr Moonilal said, “They have not had one course in cricket yet. Not one. Spent $1.2 billion, you know the initial budget for that (BLCA) was $275 million. It went to 1.2 billion. and… they just putting out tenders now for repairs to the Brian Lara which they opened just a few years ago, 80 million dollars in repairs.”
He said, “What is the scandal we face. While that is happening brothers and sisters, I want to tell Mr Ambani, of course, we have great respect for Ambani family, and so, please don’t put no money in Keith Rowley hand.
“Don’t give him none. Because you’re not sure what he will do. If you give him the money leave that deal right here. We will look at it in due course, I’m sure. But we do not want Rowley to be taking no money. He will take that to pay off for Balisier House and to campaign, if you give him money. Nothing for him. Nothing.”
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