Kamla unveils UNC masterplan

The ruling People’s National Movement (PNM)'s local government election strategy has been described by United National Congress (UNC) leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar as a “sustained campaign of demonising the UNC” by using “deflection, distraction and lies.”

Addressing a large contingent of enthusiastic flag-waving supporters at Gopaul Lands car park, Marabella on Monday night, she observed the population is “seeing right through them like glass. “I have been on the campaign trail with my very capable and qualified young candidates, from Grande to Siparia," she said, "and everywhere I walk I have yet to meet anyone saying they will vote for the Rowley regime.

The people are so tired of them and their lightbulb promises.”On the Cambridge Analytica issue, she said, “I have already said, and I say it again: the UNC has nothing to do and has had nothing to do with that company they keep talking about (Cambridge Analytica) and this is just another E-mailgate lie.”

With the funeral of Maha Sabha secretary general Satnarayan Maharaj scheduled to take place on Tuesday, she said the nation had lost a “giant of a man” who had spent his life in service to TT.

She said while others might view him differently, not a single person can deny he was a true warrior, “who stood up for equality and justice, and worked hard throughout his life to build on his vision for education.

“You know, without Sat and the SDMS many children could not have had an education in the years gone by without giving up their faith. In the early days, if they wanted to attend school, they would have had to abandon their beliefs.

“Again, without pioneers like Sat, we would not have had educational institutions for the Hindu community, and even today the SDMS schools are not limited to Hindus – for every creed and race, religion and beliefs are welcomed within the SDMS schools.” SDMS schools continue to excel, she said, citing Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College, which has produced its fifth consecutive President's Medal winner, Celine Roodal.

Persad-Bissessar said she had sometimes disagreed with Maharaj, but this occurred in every family.

“He was a true patriot, and even though at times we disagreed – what is a family without a little fight? We fight, we disagree, but we love each other.”

Returning to the PNM’s track record in south Trinidad, she said it had not only shut down Petrotrin but was “slowly dismantling” TT’s once-productive energy sector.

“And this past week we learned that yet another plant is going to be closed by the end of the year – Yara – and scores more are going to be on the breadline, facing a bleak Christmas.”“Everything they touch turns to dust.”

A re-elected UNC government, she said, would immediately implement its national economic transformation masterplan, one of whose "prosperity engines" is the southwest peninsula economic zone.Private investors, said Persad-Bissessar, would be invited to create a special development zone linking Cedros to Moruga, which would comprise a “commercial port, agro-processing facilities for coconut, Moruga hill rice and scorpion pepper, eco-tourism, real estate, housing and other business activities, as well as a military base.”

Her government would also extend the Point Fortin Highway to Cedros, and upgrade the road network to Moruga as well as building a new highway from San Fernando to Mayaro.She also revealed plans to revitalise the sugar industry, saying since its closure some 15 years ago by a previous PNM government, the country had spent over $300 million a year on importing sugar and sugar products.

“We will invite private investors to establish a new state-of-the-art, co-operative sugar manufacturing company at Usine St Madeleine. “This new sugar company will purchase sugarcane grown by private farmers at market-based prices and will produce organic raw sugar and products like jaggery for sale to the domestic and export markets.” (Jaggery is a coarse dark brown sugar made in India by evaporating cane juice.)

And zeroing in on the southern city, she said the UNC will create a new digital transformation agency in San Fernando. She explained what it would do: “No longer will each ministry pursue its own modernisation effort. A single DTA will lead co-ordinated programme to efficiently and effectively move government services into the technology age using cloud and other modern IT services.”

Describing the PNM’s plans for the San Fernando Waterfront as “unimpressive and very myopic,” said the UNC will instead build a first-class hotel and conference centre on the waterfront. The San Fernando Hill would also be "upgraded" and the feasibility of opening up and using the hill’s upper plateau would be explored. Persad-Bissessar said a cable car would also be explored to deal with the issue of parking at the site.The Embacadere beachfront and the Hatters panyard would be developed to create a waterfront cuisine centre where “patrons can enjoy the scenic sea front and its expansive views," especially at the top of the hill behind the panyard.