St Augustine Campus lecturer and anti smelter activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh says government should cut some of the bureaucratic tape for citizens wishing to access the Green Fund. The Green Fund is a grant the government gives to its citizens and environmental groups dedicated to environmentally-friendly projects. Kublalsingh said: "It would be good if they could cut some of the bureaucratic tape required to access the Green Fund. "A member of the group, Rosanna Farmer, accessed the Fund to do a pilot project in plastic recycling." "I hope the new government will continue that trend. But I hope they will make the bureaucracy a little easier. She spent about two years trying to get it." Kublalsingh also lauded the government for its initiative in attempting to clean up the environment.
"I think the government seems to have embarked upon a recycling drive. I think it is necessary in the area of metals, plastics, cooking oil, car engine oil, aluminum, rubber (tyres), wood, cloth, paper, plastics. He said people should access the Fund and make it more sustainable. "I don't think we should wait on the government. I think we should access the Green Fund and start executing it by ourselves. "The government will provide broad legislative and policy framework that's required for recycling. It has to be made sustainable," added Kublalsingh. Quizzed on his sentiments on the Budget, which was based on US$65 per barrel of crude oil, he said: "They have integrated growth plans. We have to start developing ourselves and developing our own entrepreneurial corps."
Kublalsingh, along with physicist Dr Peter Vine, have been most condemnatory of the proposed smelter at Chatham, La Brea. So, he breathed a sigh of relief when the idea was scrapped. "I think the Budget put the last nail in the coffin of the master gas plan for the west coast. The plans the Patrick Manning led administration had for the smelter, aluminum and steel are gone. They (People's Partnership) have opened up a new diversified path for development." He welcomed the impetus toward developing the agricultural sector. Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said agriculture would be allocated $1,836 million for development. "All of these huge industrial countries like Europe depend upon agriculture. It is not a backward thing. It is just we practice it backward. It is not fork farming; it is heavy technology."
Minister of Food Production Vasant Bharath had indicated there would be a resuscitation of agricultural industries like coconut and cocoa. Bharath has also lamented that T&T was the 10th largest importer of goat meat from Australia.
Dookeran on the Environment
In his Budget presentation on Wednesday, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said: "The legislation governing the Fund will need to be amended to allow Non Governmental Organisations incorporated under the Companies Act incorporated as Non profit companies to be eligible to access the Fund." "It proposed that the Green Fund legislation be amended to allow organisation and Community Groups which include remediation, reforestation and conservation of the environment in their portfolio of projects, to qualify for assistance from the Green Fund."
He also made reference to an increase in Penalties Under the Litter Act.
1. If an individual deposits litter in a public place the fine will increase from $1,000 to $2,000.
2. A corporation which is responsible for unsecured material falling 3. Anyone responsible for material deemed a health hazard by local authorities is liable for an initial fine of $2,000. and $400 every day thereafter.
