‘Manickchand Has No Authority’: Coalition Blasts Government Over Linden Toll

By Mark DaCosta-According to a statement issued by the A Partnership for National Unity/People’s National Congress Reform (APNU/PNCR) coalition, the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration has overstepped its authority by scrapping tolls on the Kara Kara Road, effectively stripping the Linden Town Council of a source of revenue.

The coalition further maintained that the Government used a jointly signed communiqué with Linden’s Mayor to shift responsibility for the Council’s financial and administrative problems onto elected councillors, while overlooking what it describes as the central role of the PPP-appointed Town Clerk in the Council’s dysfunction.

The coalition maintains that the Minister Priya Manickchand, who has responsibility for Local Government had no legal standing whatsoever to strike down the toll. As the statement bluntly puts it: “She has no authority to do so.” Tensions escalated after the Mayor of Linden, Dominque Blair, went public with his concerns, prompting an invitation to meet the President and culminating in a joint statement that the coalition characterises as nothing more than a government-drafted political tract dressed up as consensus.