Yvonne?Ba­boolal

Hunger strik­er Dr Wayne Kublals­ingh says con­tin­u­ing the Debe to Mon De­sir leg of the Point Fortin High­way in this time of di­min­ish­ing oil prices con­sti­tutes crim­i­nal­i­ty in pub­lic of­fice.

"Debe to Mon De­sir is ex­ces­sive, waste­ful, de­struc­tive and pos­si­bly vi­o­lent­ly cor­rupt. Any at­tempt to now take a loan or per­sist with Debe to Mon De­sir, when there is a su­pe­ri­or al­ter­na­tive avail­able, the tax­pay­er is al­ready sad­dled with debt, oil and gas prices are di­min­ish­ing and mas­sive de­struc­tion will be in­curred, con­sti­tutes crim­i­nal­i­ty in pub­lic of­fice."It de­serves the firmest pos­si­ble pub­lic rep­ri­mand and sanc­tion. It is rub­bing salt in­to our eco­nom­ic wound."

Kublals­ingh, whose protest hunger strike is well over 100 days, was re­spond­ing to the an an­nounce­ment in Par­lia­ment by Works Min­is­ter Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan that the bil­lion-dol­lar Point Fortin High­way project will not be stopped in planned cut­backs for 2015.Kublals­ingh, head of the High­way Re-route Move­ment, had said in De­cem­ber last year the Gov­ern­ment will be forced to stop the project be­cause of falling oil prices and that will be a vic­to­ry for the peo­ple.

Clear­ly up­set yes­ter­day, he re­called in a re­lease that the In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank, in a fea­si­bil­i­ty study of the Point Fortin High­way, had said it was over de­signed, too ex­pen­sive, a bet­ter al­ter­na­tive was pos­si­ble and the ten­der­ing process was ques­tion­able. The IADB had said it would not en­ter­tain any pro­pos­al for fund­ing this project.

Ram­bachan said the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny had se­cured a fi­nal loan of $1.5 bil­lion last De­cem­ber for the project and mon­ey was avail­able to con­tin­ue it.