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Nagamootoo denies Govt. ever promised $9,000 per bag of paddy
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has vehemently denied that his government ever promised rice farmers that a bag of paddy would be bought at a price of $9,000. The Prime Minister made this declaration during Monday’s debate of the motion regarding the increase in land rent for farmers in the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary Agriculture Authority (MMA/ADA).
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo
The motion was moved by People’s Progressive Party Civic Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj.
Nagamootoo said that the price has been used throughout the debate by speakers on the Opposition, as a red herring in their arguments for Government to repeal the increase in land rents.
He said that since the 11th Parliament started, no member of the Opposition has named a member of government that would have promised rice farmers $9,000 nor have they given a source of this information.
Nagamootoo said that if Opposition members have the courage to identify their source of such information then they should do so and place it on the record.
“They (opposition) invented an argument to fool the rice farmers by saying that we have promised $9,000 per bag (of paddy). No such promise has ever been made by any one on this side of the House (government). No such promise has been made in the manifesto during the election.”
He said that Opposition members have taken advantage of the privileges afforded in the National Assembly to repeat an allegation that is totally untrue and concocted.
The Prime Minister said that the farmers of Guyana need to know that they are being used in a concocted war to be used for the advantages of ambitious politicians.
During his presentation, Nagamootoo debunked arguments that the MMA/ADA could have avoided increases in the rates.
He said that persons who argue this position should take cognizance of the fact that like GuySuCo, the MMA/ADA had to be given $357M as a subvention by Central Government to allow it to exist as an agency that was created under law to supervise and manage a productive area of the country.
He said that the motion which was moved in the Assembly was badly conceived. It was intended to capitalise opportunistically to create a situation that would bring about dissatisfaction among a specific section of Guyanese population.
Nagamootoo defended the increase in rates saying that there are persons who have been giving large expanses of land but have not been able to utilise the land nor pay for them.
“So there are many reasons why we have come to this situation where the rates that were approved by the Minister (Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder) were the rates reflecting a reality that you have to pay a little more to have better services.”
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