RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram says the Cab­i­net has ap­proved a ma­jor en­vi­ron­men­tal re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gramme to re­for­est lands im­pact­ed by en­er­gy de­vel­op­ment.

His com­ments came as dozens of Rio Claro res­i­dents, led by for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) can­di­date for the area and pres­i­dent of the Rio Claro Un­em­ploy­ment As­so­ci­a­tion (RCUA), Louis Castil­lo, marched to the Point Lisas Round­about in Cou­va yes­ter­day, call­ing for the re­plant­i­ng of forests cleared for the Cas­cadu­ra project and long-promised jobs for res­i­dents. Rati­ram con­firmed that the Gov­ern­ment had signed off on a com­pre­hen­sive ini­tia­tive un­der the Re­leaf TT pro­gramme, which will see 102 hectares of land re­for­est­ed and more than 236,000 trees plant­ed.