SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Demon­stra­tors vowed to "bring down the Gov­ern­ment" when they waved plac­ards and burnt tyres in a bid to stop the con­struc­tion of the US $430 mil­lion Carisal chlo­ri al­ka­li plant at Point Lisas. Yes­ter­day morn­ing a group of around 65 demon­stra­tors led by Wayne Kublals­ingh marched to the pro­posed 27-acre site that had been re­cent­ly cleared, climbed on top of con­tain­ers and demon­strat­ed.

The group then drove to Phoenix Park and burnt tyres at the back of the site near the Phoenix Park ceme­tery. Kublals­ingh said he be­lieves that the Gov­ern­ment does not want to re­lo­cate the plant to the west­ern side of the South­ern Main Road be­cause a fi­nancer of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship is in­volved in the project.He said the chem­i­cal in­dus­try should not be lo­cat­ed in the midst of three vil­lages, but would be bet­ter suit­ed near oth­er in­dus­tries on the west­ern end of the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate.

Kublals­ingh said Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had giv­en the as­sur­ance that the de­ci­sion to place Carisal on the east­ern side of the South­ern Main Road would be re­viewed. He said the group had ex­pect­ed a meet­ing with the PM but in­stead en­coun­tered con­tain­ers and heavy equip­ment on the site.

Kublals­ingh said the fail­ure of the PM to meet with the dis­grun­tled res­i­dents was a sign of dis­re­spect for the small man that start­ed with the Patrick Man­ning PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion. He said, "I don't think she (re­fer­ring to the PM) is in any state to run this coun­try. I think she is un­well. I think she should be res­cued and tak­en for a rest and put some­body to take care of this Gov­ern­ment un­til she is ready to run it again."

When asked if the demon­stra­tion was po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed, Kublals­ingh did not an­swer. He in­stead said, "This is about the health of peo­ple, it is about the life of peo­ple, this plant would be here for 50 years." He said the Carisal plant was a haz­ard since it would pro­duce and store a cock­tail of five chem­i­cals and can gen­er­ate dust that can wreak hav­oc. Kublals­ingh said his group was al­so en­gaged in di­a­logue with the fi­nancers of the plant.