Dear Editor,
We remain deeply disturbed and concerned about the fact that it has been more than two months since the AFC promised Berbicians and all Guyanese that it would table a motion in Parliament calling for a reduction of the Berbice Bridge toll.
Well, so far this has not materialized and Berbicians are still waiting. The AFC Berbice MP, Dr Veersammy Ramayya even went so far as to publicly announce in Kaieteur News the AFC plans concerning the reduction of the toll. So why no movement on the floor of the Parliament on this issue from the AFC?
The AFC has been unwilling to put its reputation on the line for the Berbicians who voted en masse for the party in the 2011 general elections. Reduction of the Berbice Bridge toll in particular continues to be a vexing problem for most Berbicians, irrespective of their party affiliation. Bottom line, the toll is too expensive and must be reduced.
Today, just a couple of weeks before the reading of the 2013 National Budget, we heard the Minister of Public Works announce that he has “no plans to reduce the toll on Berbice Bridge.”
How can he continue to punish Cde Cheddi’s people?
It seems as though he is prepared to risk the political future of the PPP.
Further to that we were also advised that the APNU MP for Region Five will be working on a motion to reduce the Berbice Bridge tolls. Is the AFC not sharing its legislative agenda with the leaders of APNU?
Or is APNU tired of waiting for the AFC to bring this motion to the floor of Parliament? Either way, the people of Berbice will welcome such a motion with open arms, whether it comes from APNU or the AFC.
The nation’s Budget will be with us in less than two weeks and the govern-ment has made it abundantly clear they are not interested in reducing the economic oppression of the Berbicians, so why is the AFC not stepping up to do the right thing for Berbicians who continue to face the brunt of the inept policies of the PPP?
In politics we have learnt that a party’s political shelf life is as good as the last good act it does for the people; that is why 16 years after his death, Dr Cheddi Jagan continues to be loved by thousands all over Guyana.
His legacy will be with them forever because he has walked with the people, eaten with the people, advocated for the people, gone to prison for the people, and lived for the people. Dr Jagan’s people are the poor and the working class.
It is time for the AFC to answer the call by all Berbicians for relief on this excessively high bridge toll.
In a Parliament that continues to meet twice per month plus the budget period, this year is shaping up to be the worst for a Parliament whose MPs are going to meet for only 19% of their opportunity days this year.
We believe that it will be fair to the taxpayers to give the parliamentarians value for their money by offering them 19% of their salary. Not much of the people’s work can be accomplished this way.
This is not what the people elected them to do.
Yours faithfully,
Asquith Rose
Harish S Singh
