There was an attempt to outfox the media at the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) yesterday to block coverage of the police bodily lifting activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh out of the door. Shortly after 4.30 pm, when the EMA's offices on Alexandra Street, St Clair, closed, members of the media were called inside the gates, which had been locked and were manned by several police officers. A small band of people from Mon Desir, Debe, and Savonetta in central Trinidad had been keeping a noisy protest outside the EMA's offices on Elizabeth Street, St Clair, Port-of-Spain. The protesters want an alternative route for the Debe to Mon Desir Highway and the relocation of Carisal, the chemical complex. At the EMA offices yesterday afternoon communications specialist Tisha Maharaj said she was taking the media to talk to CEO Dr Joth Singh.
Two police officers, dressed in plainclothes, followed the media inside the conference room and Singh appeared. It was while he was talking to the media the police bodily lifted Kublalsingh and deposited him outside the gates. Three women and four men who had been with him in the lobby since 1.30 pm were escorted out. Photographers from the three daily newspapers, smelling a rat, did not stay for Singh's interview and were able to capture the police bringing out Kublalsingh. "The police fooled you," Kublalsingh said as he was being removed. Attempts to reach the EMA for a response after the incident proved futile. Outside the gates, Kublalsingh thanked God for "putting down a beautiful action on them today" and asked one of the protesters to say a prayer. "Dog better than these people, Allah," a woman in Muslim attire prayed. "Give this brother strength to conquer these people."
The activists then set fire to the two certificates of environmental clearance (CECs) granted for the extension of the highway from Debe to Mon Desir and for the Carisal chemical plant. Kublalsingh claimed they were bogus and they were burned in a bucket. He said he refused to leave the EMA's office until officials presented him with copies of a hydraulics report on the highway project. He said before the CEC for the project was granted in March 2010, the director of drainage at the Works Ministry, the head of the Water Resources Agency at the Water & Sewerage Authority and the EMA's own risk-assessment team requested a hydraulics report. The report was requested because of the longstanding flooding problem in the south areas close to the proposed highway. Kublalsingh said his group's own hydraulics experts were warning that the construction of the highway would result in permanent flooding.
He said the CEC was granted minus the report and he had told EMA officials he would not leave their offices until he got a copy of it. Singh, during the interview with the media yesterday, insisted a hydraulics report was included in the Environmental Impact Assessment, which led to the granting of the CEC. He said thanks to the engineering design of the highway, the flooding problem in the area would not worsen. Singh maintained that the CEC was an "excellent one." He gave a hint that Kublalsingh might be thrown out. "He's still here and we have to close our office at 4.30 pm. He might be waiting to be assisted out by the police," he added.