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Kara Kara toll booth officially reopens
The controversial Kara Kara toll booth in Linden, was yesterday officially reopened
Timber trucks with logs will attract a $5000 fee – this was the first such vehicle at the toll booth yesterday.
for business by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, who posited that its return symbolised the return of “people power” in Linden
Williams had said earlier, that the municipality would have lost over $250 million in revenues, since the toll booth was disbanded. The administration had committed to its reactivation. So did former IMC Chairman Orrin Gordon and Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland.
On hand for the re-opening were Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Valerie-Adams Patterson, Mayor Holland and Regional Chairman Renis Morian, among other important stakeholders.
Yesterday’s event was realised after a series of consultations with important stakeholders, across Region Ten.
Patterson said that the return of the toll booth signals the return of democracy, for the people of Guyana, but more particularly the people of Linden, and that “it came after twenty three years of what I consider as bondage, where the massas had to say what could happen or couldn’t happen. I call it twenty-three years of dependency syndrome and marginalization. Even though it is said that Guyana is an
Officials gather outside the toll booth following its reopening.
independent nation, independence was farfetched.
“Thanks to his Excellency David Arthur Granger, and the APNU/AFC coalition, who through this body have seen that true democracy has returned to Guyana. As a result the Linden Mayor and Town Council can now exercise true leadership on behalf of the people of this wonderful Town.
Today I want to congratulate you for the reorganisation that is taking place in the Council, Mr Mayor and councillors, and for the re-establishment of this economic activity.”
Patterson wished the municipality “good success’ in the future operations of the facility.
Minister Williams during his congratulatory message to the Mayor and Town Council said that the toll booth was arbitrarily disbanded by the former administration, and in so doing the municipality was robbed of vital revenue.
He pointed out that just after the toll booth’s closure BaiShanLin started operations, and many of their trucks were passing through (Linden), and no toll could be collected from them – so the council would have lost millions of dollars in revenue as a result.
The ‘toll fee’ sign.
“It wasn’t by accident, it was deliberate, because the PPP had a special programme to marginalise and discriminate against the people of Linden.
Williams said that after attaining office he had no difficulty working on the regulatory framework and legislation, and keeping an eye on the “project”.
He stressed that what is important about this step by the municipality is that it is now operating under a reformed local government system; a system that his party fought for over the years. He added that “since 2000, the provisions of chapter seven of our constitution, which spoke to local democracy, had been “fleshed out’.
But Williams noted that the former government had no interest in seeing local democracy, independence or autonomy; and had no interest in allowing the municipality to garner revenue for itself. “In other words they determined everything that you got.”
He was high in praise for former IMC chairman Orrin Gordon, who he noted had started the process towards the reinstitution of the toll booth, even though he was preparing to demit office.
The Kara Kara toll booth was established in 1997 to garner much needed revenue for the Linden municipality, but was disbanded through an order by then Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker, in 2013.
According to Whittaker, the toll booth was not gazetted and was therefore operating illegally.
Gordon subsequently pursued every avenue to have the booth reactivated, but his efforts at the time proved futile. However the fight for the return of the booth was continued after Mayor Holland and his new team of councillors were sworn in earlier this year.
Gordon in earlier interviews had told the media that the toll booth was a crucial revenue earner for the Linden municipality. Before its suspension, between $2.3M-$3M in revenue was raked in through the collection of toll, on a monthly basis, Gordon had revealed.
With the current adjustments in toll fees there is expected to be an increase in revenues.
The monies accrued from the facility, had over the years, assisted the council greatly in taking care of its business, including the payment of wages and salaries.
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