Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has denied that the government promised to pay rice farmers in Berbice $9,000 a bag for paddy and has challenged the opposition PPP/C to name the person who made the promise.
Members of the opposition have accused the government of making the promise and the accusation was repeated during last week’s debate in the National Assembly of a motion that sought to reverse increases in land rent and other charges to farmers in the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) area.
“If they have the courage to stand up to name me the source, stand and put it on the record if that source is credible,” Nagamootoo urged during his contribution to the debate.
He pointed out that the speakers on the opposition side repeated the allegation during their presentations but none named the person who reportedly made the promise.
According to Nagamootoo, no such promise was made in the government’s manifesto nor during the elections campaign. He labelled the allegation as mischievous and accused the PPP members of taking advantage of the House to repeat something that was “concocted and invented.”
He said the farmers were being used as political fodder, in a war by ambitious politicians now “licking their wounds now that they have been thrown out of office.”
Meanwhile, Nagamootoo described the motion, which was defeated, as having no merit, and he said the increases were justifiable, reasonable, rational and necessary.
“A responsible government cannot allow what has happened to GuySuCo under the PPP/C to visit the MMA-ADA and prudent management would require certain measures to ensure that it does not become a drag on the treasury,” he said.
The argument that the increase came out of the blue and was meant to be punitive was without merit, the Prime Minister said, while pointing out that since in 2007, under the PPP/C government, increases were put forward and discussed at Cabinet.
