Several projects in a much-hyped scheme from 2009 to provide alternative livelihoods for several Amerindian communities appear to have been abandoned and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs has been silent on the projects.
The $88M National Hinterland Secure Livelihoods projects in Region One, have been stalled or abandoned according to residents. A visit by Stabroek News last month to the much vaunted Tobago Hill fish ponds confirmed that that project had been abandoned. Since then, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai and Permanent Secretary, Nigel Dharamlall, have declined to speak to this newspaper despite numerous attempts.
The Hassar fish pond project embarked on by the government to provide a livelihood for the remote Region One Amerindian community, Tobago Hill, became a