‘Govt plan to fire 15,000 workers’

Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi has accused Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Ministers Barry Padarath and Saddam Hosein of ma­king “dangerous, salacious, sensational, deliberately misleading and simply inaccurate statements” at Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference in Port of Spain.

Padarath, the Minis­ter of Public Utilities, on Thursday said that on the eve of the gene­ral election—during the period April 14 to April 24—the People’s National Movement (PNM) government renewed over 360 CEPEP (Community-based Environmental Pro­tection and Enhancement Programme) contracts for a three-year period.

Minister in the Ministry of Agricul­ture and Minister of Legal Affairs Sad­dam Hosein disclosed a similar situation in the National Reforestation and Watershed Rehabilitation Programme (NRWRP), another programme which previously fell under Al-Rawi.