Hunger strike ends over Trinidad highway project++Settlement in sight for ending impasse over multibillion dollar highway project

University lecturer loses 40lbs in hunger strike protesting Trinidad highway project

Kublalsingh and the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM) had  been

calling for the authorities to halt the construction of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the highway.

Environmentalist  Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh has ended a 21 day hunger strike in protest over the  Trinidad and Tobago government’s decision to construct a multi-billion dollar  highway that he said would have caused widespread damage to the environment and  disrupt the lives of hundreds of people in the south of the country.

The 53-year University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer agreed to call off  his daily protest outside the office of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar on  Wednesday night after holding talks with officials from the Joint Consultative  Council (JCC) on the TT$7.2 billion (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) San Fernando  to Point Fortin  highway project.

“The JCC and its partners have agreed to a review and the government has also  agreed to undertake to do commission the review. This review and the terms of  reference, the JCC agreed to do a hydrology study of the area. They also agreed  to do a social impact assessment ...they also agreed to listen to written and  oral submissions from residents in the area,” Kublalsingh said on  television.

Kublalsingh and the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM) had been calling for the  authorities to halt the construction of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the  highway and he told television viewers that agreement had been reached “to stop  all works” on that section.

“As far as that is concerned we are satisfied,” he said.

On Monday, Works Minister Emmanuel George, who met with the JCC and other  non-government bodies seeking a resolution to the impasse over the construction  of the highway, said “the National Infrastructure Development Company Limited  (NIDCO) undertook to make available to the JCC all the relevant documentation in  its possession on the project in respect of the Debe to Mont Desir segement of  the highway.

He said that the JCC had given an undertaking to “examine all the  documentation on the project provided  by NIDCO and all other relevant  documentation and to produce a report within 60 days from today’s date for NIDCO  for its consideration and publication thereafter”.

In addition, George said there had been agreement that “work would continue  on the site of the highway”.

JCC president Afra Raymond told reporters that he is satisfied with the  outcome of the discussions.

But Kublalsingh and the HRM in a statement, said while they were grateful to  the various civil society organisations, they were issuing three demands that  they wanted met before calling off the hunger strike.

Kublalsingh said he is now satisfied that these demands had been met and as a  result was calling off his hunger strike.

He said he would now be seeking medical attention “and they (doctors) will  tell me how to proceed from there.

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Head of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) Afra Raymond Monday called on environmentalist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh to end his hunger strike after the group said it had reached an agreement with government on some of the issues regarding the construction of the multi-billion dollar highway in south Trinidad.

Works Minister Emmanuel George, who met with the JCC and other non-government bodies seeking a resolution to the impasse over the construction of the highway, said “the National Infrastructure Development Company Limited undertook to make available to the JCC all the relevant documentation in its possession on the project in respect of the Debe to Mont Desir segement of the highway.

He said that the JCC had given an undertaking to “examine all the documentation on the project provided  by NIDCO and all other relevant documentation and to produce a report within 60 days from today’s date for NIDCO for its consideration and publication thereafter”.

In addition, George said there had been agreement that “work would continue on the site of the highway”

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Jack Warner labels environmentalist on hunger strike a "con man"

National Security Minister Austin Jack Warner said “don’t feel sorry for him, he is a conman. The biggest conmen you can find in the land is (former prime minister Basdeo) Panday and Kublalsingh.

The Trinidad and Tobago government went on the offensive Monday night portraying environmentalist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh, who is on a hunger strike as a member of a “cult” and a “conman” for his opposition to the construction of a highway in the south of the country.

National Security Minister Austin Jack Warner has described Kublalsingh, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI) as a “conman” and that he should quicken the pace of killing himself.

“Don’t feel sorry for him, he is a conman. The biggest conmen you can find in the land is (former prime minister Basdeo) Panday and Kublalsingh.

“They say of course how the Prime Minister is killing Kublalsingh, he killing himself, but he better do it quickly,” Warner said.

Kublalisngh, 53, goes into the 13th day of his hunger strike on Tuesday, but at a reactivated “Monday Night Forum”, members of the ruling United National Congress (UNC), including Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar reiterated that the seven billion dollar (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) highway will be built.

Kublalsingh, who heads the Highway Re-route Movement, is calling for a section of the highway to be rebuilt warning that if the government continues on the present path it would lead to environmental damage and cause widespread flooding among other concerns.

“Why is it they do not want development that would come with this highway? Debe is the focal point. Debe is the centre of this highway. I ask tonight, why don’t they want this highway to pass through? I am told that 300,000 persons stand to benefit from this highway,” Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said at the Forum carried live on the state-owned television station. “Why don’t they want it? In the same way when we announced we would build a south campus of UWI in Debe, they asked, ‘why you building a UWI campus in Debe. So the people of the south land...are we not people too? Are we not citizens too?

She said the highway would bring much improved infrastructure to the area “and will create a more level economic playing field for all of Trinidad and Tobago.

“We will not stop this highway. My government will not be held to ransom by a handful of persons. We will continue to operate without fair or favour,” she said, displaying a technical report on the Mon Desir to Debe section of the highway, which she said had already been handed over to the environmentalist.

Housing Minister Dr. Roodial Moonilal, who has already labelled Kublalsingh as a “spoilt child” told the meeting that the environmentalist was merely acting and was not at all engaged in any hunger strike.

Speakers at the meeting had claimed that after staging his strike outside the Office of the Prime Minister during the day, Kublalsingh goes to have a “hearty meal” at a private residence in the night.

Moonilal said that Kublalsingh and the Highway Re-route Movement have sought to ‘embarrass the Prime Minister and her cabinet” during a meeting to discuss the highway a few months ago.

“When they come in they say hold on, they say we want a committee, but we want parity. That means if the committee is 20 people they want to have 10. What they think it is a vote at the United Nations”.

The senior Cabinet minister said that Kublalsingh is being aided and abetted by members of his family, adding “there is something surreal about every member of this family coming in a bizarre fashion on television.

“Every morning a different member of the family come to say we support him. The family appears to be a cult,” Moonilal said, warning that the country should now brace itself for violence since Kublalsingh is now “publicly” supported by the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) that has “always had violence as a political option.

“You have to watch that Kublalsingh is now in bed with the PNM and they may seek to perpetrate violence in this society to stop the development of the highway. We will not permit that,” he added.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing the Highway Re-Route Movement will on Thursday go before Justice Charmaine Pemberton as the lawsuit filed by the lobby group comes up for hearing in the Port-of-Spain High Court.

The movement is seeking an early trial. The lawsuit, filed in August, seeks to block the State from constructing a portion of the highway.

In an application filed last week, lawyers sought to have a speedy trial following Kublalsingh’s decision to embark on a hunger strike in support of his demands for an independent technical review of the Mon Desir to Debe segment of the highway.

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Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh loses 40lbs in hunger strike

protesting Trinidad highway project

Environmentalist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh ended the first week of his hunger strike outside the office of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar on Friday, visibly thinner than when he started, but maintaining his action was justified to get the Trinidad and Tobago government to change its position regarding the construction of a highway south of here.

Medical officials Friday treated Kublalsingh, a University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer, inside an ambulance that has been parked nearby earlier this week as relatives fear for his life.

Kublalsingh, 53, whose weight has tumbled by more than 40 pounds to 93, later told reporters “doctors say my kidneys are shutting down and the increase in potassium may cause my heart to stop at any time”.

But his brother, Hayden, who has emerged as his main spokesman in recent days, said on radio that while “his kidneys are under stress” Kublalsingh intends to continue his hunger strike over the weekend and would be present outside the Prime Minister’s office on Monday.

“His decision is to take a rest this weekend and continue on the hunger strike of not having anything to eat or drink,” he said, adding “if at any time during the weekend any situation were to occur where the medical people felt will decide that would require...an IV, he will give consideration to that and will advise.

“He is going to be back here on Monday morning, the integrity of the struggle continues, we all regroup here on Monday,” he said.

On Friday, government supporters staged a demonstration in support of the San Fernando-to-Point Fortin Highway south of here that Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said her administration had no plans of scrapping because of the actions of the environmentalist.

She has also dismissed reports that she reneged on a promise made to Kublalsingh, who heads the Highway Re-route Movement.

“Many have asked me to visit him and I wish to clarify this once again. Wayne Kublalsingh insists that he does not wish to see me, his demands are for a technical review committee to evaluate the Solomon Hochoy Extension project and that while this committee is being established that the roadwork be halted,” the Prime Minister said on Thursday.

“His inappropriate and aggressive rejection of the Minister of Health and others whom the government sent in his interest is consistent with this stance.  In fact, Wayne has made it clear on more than one occasion and continues to do so ... that he has no desire to see me. So the failure to meet with him is not of my own making but of Wayne’s refusal”.

The four-party coalition government said “in any event, the Highway Re-route Movement has filed a case raising the very issues and these are now therefore the subject of judicial consideration by the High Court”.

“The matter is therefore now sub judice, and in that regard, any meeting between the government and the Group would be inadvisable if not inappropriate”.

But on Friday, Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadar told reporters that the report of the Technical review of Point Fortin highway should be made public.

Housing Minister Dr. Roodial Moonilal, who this week described Kublalsingh as “a spoilt child,” said the protest action by people in favour of the highway was not instigated by the government.

“There have been several persons ... who have been extremely eager to come out and vent their support for the highway. These are people, they are not organised or anything like that. I have never promoted that kind of thing because I didn’t think there was any purpose to it, but given where we are with Mr, Kublalsingh’s activity, I understand that persons in those areas have mobilised themselves.

“This is certainly not any activity that the government has in anyway promoted, but I can understand what is happening because a lot of people were silent for a long time and what has happened is that there is a belief that Kublalsingh has the support of the people from that area.

“People have said enough is enough and they are coming in support of the highway.

 Moonilal said.

Roman Catholic priest, Father Clive Harvey, who has been praying with Kublalsingh, said whether or not the Prime Minister visits Kublalsingh “is not important anymore.

“What is important is the technical committee. The other thing he is saying is ‘if this technical committee decides differently from how I feel I will accept that. I am not being some stubborn pig on that issue, all I want is some transparency and truth and to be able to be able to restore some level of trust to governance in the country’”.

Father Harvey said “on that score I agree with him completely because one of the key problems in the society today is that we have come to a point where we cannot trust our politicians and that does not only apply to the government, it applies to both sides in the sense that people’s don;t know who to trust”.