The government and the Region 10 administration are moving to hold talks on their August 21st agreement—brokered to address the development of Linden and end sustained protests—as there has been little progress in its implementation.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon has written to the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 seeking to convene a meeting to discuss the status of the committees that came out of the agreement.
Stabroek News was informed that in response to Luncheon’s letter, dated October 25, Chairman of Region 10 Sharma Solomon has stated that he would be available to meet on November 2. As a result of the lack of implementation, Solomon recently publicly registered his concern over the government’s apparent failure to keep its commitments to the region.
Coming out of the agreement were a number of committees, including the Technical Review Committee to examine the issue of electricity rates—which was partly responsible for the over one-month-long protest in Linden—and an Economic Committee to examine economic issues. However, Chairman of the Technical Review Committee Narvon Persaud resigned after five meetings, while a chairman for the Economic Committee has not been appointed. Continued efforts by this newspaper to reach Persaud for the reasons for his resignation proved futile.
The agreement between the two sides came as part of the efforts to bring normalcy to the Linden. Three men were shot dead on the first day of the protests, following which the protestors escalated the demonstrations against the electricity tariffs, blocking key roadways to the interior.
Vice Chairman of main opposition APNU Dr Rupert Roopnaraine expressed his disappointment that there has been so little progress on the movement of the Linden agreement and the work of the committees set up to address ongoing economic concerns of the mining community.
In an interview with Stabroek News on Thursday, Roopnaraine said he does not believe that there is any work ongoing with the Technical Committee or the Economic Committee. He said that between the government and the opposition, there has been no agreement on the Chairman of the Economic Committee and no further engagement on the replacement of the Chairman of the Technical Committee.
He also noted that the built-in mechanism of reporting the progress of the committee has never been employed. “These committees were supposed to report to the bilateral body. But there has been no reporting and no convening of that committee,” said Roopnaraine. “I would have thought that in view of the problems that the committees now face, that the bilateral body would have been convened to get them going,” he explained. “The whole process has fallen far behind,” he added. “I don’t believe that either side has a monopoly on the source of the difficulties that the committees face. But [there is a need to examine what the problem is with a view to addressing it],” he said.
The Technical Review Committee comprises – with the exception of Persaud – Lloyd Rose, Haslyn Parris and Professor Clive Thomas, who were nominated by the opposition and Norman McLean, Bharat Dindyal, and Winston Brassington, who were nominated by the government.
It is tasked with reviewing the existing provision and consumption of electricity in Linden, including the history, the costs, the tariff structure, and the subsidies; considering arrangements to provide electricity to the Linden community and the tariffs to sustain such arrangements within a sustainable time frame; examining Region 10′s economic circumstances inclusive of the affordability of increased cost; looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the integration of the supply of electricity in the Linden area into the national grid; and, making recommendations on cost saving measures and options for alternative energy, including the facilitation of conservation education and conservation. With regard to the Economic Committee, the region nominated two women – Joycelyn Miller and Desiree Field-Ridley – but government rejected these names and put forward instead Clinton Williams, Rajendra Rampersaud and Roger Rogers.
The Economic Committee would be tasked with examining all studies, all plans, all sectors and their resources in use, new resources and human resources and developing a sustainable development plan for Linden and Region 10.
It is also supposed to review all initiatives, including LEAP and LEN, with the aim of gleaning the lessons to be learnt from these initiatives and making recommendations for new initiatives. It will also look at Linden and Region 10’s facilities and capacity for food self sufficiency and to the extent feasible develop a plan for self sufficiency as part of the Regional Development Plan.
It is also tasked with reviewing the existing framework within which private investment is attracted to Linden and Region 10 and make the appropriate recommendations. It will seek to identify the issues as they relate to policies, administrative capacity, skills development, investment climate etc. The committee will also examine the employment situation of Linden in particular and Region 10 in general and make appropriate recommendations.
In addition to the two committees, the agreement also catered for the Government and Region 10 to agree to the establishment of a Region 10 Regional Land Selection Committee, as well as to return the dish and transmitter for the TV station to the Linden community, with the government to facilitate a broadcast licence for the region. There was a two week-deadline for both areas.
When Stabroek News spoke to Solomon about two weeks ago, he said that the land selection committee had been established. But he said that the PPP/C and the AFC still had to submit names of persons to sit on that committee. He said that the Terms of Reference have been crafted and “we need to have the legal authority to ensure that all land issues are channelled through this committee.”
