Bulkan blasts Manickchand over Kara Kara toll row

Sep 03, 2026 News

---

(Kaieteur News) – Former Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan has accused Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand of acting as an “overlord” of constitutionally autonomous local government organs, as the controversy over tolls at Kara Kara Public Road in Linden escalates.

Bulkan’s intervention came after Manickchand on September 1 instructed Linden Town Clerk Lennox Gasper to “cease and desist immediately” from imposing or collecting any toll or charge at Kara Kara Public Road. But on the very day, the Minister issued that directive, the Official Gazette published Order No. 172 of 2026, signed by Manickchand herself, expressly revoking the Linden Town Council (Toll) By-Laws 2016, which had been gazetted on August 20, 2016.

Bulkan described the minister’s two positions as contradictory, asking whether she had deliberately misled the Linden municipality or whether “her left hand was unaware of what her right hand was doing.”

The former minister also questioned the legal authority relied upon by Manickchand to revoke the 2016 By-Laws. He pointed specifically to Sections 304 and 305 of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Cap. 28:01, which the Minister cited as the basis for her Order, arguing that those provisions do not confer the authority she sought to exercise.

“I am reminded that the minister is an attorney, but it appears that it is a case of her desire to operate as an overlord of statutory autonomous constitutional organs, superseding her obvious knowledge of the law,” Bulkan wrote.

His criticism comes as the Linden Mayor and Town Council mounts its own strong challenge to the government’s intervention. Mayor Dominique Blair said the council’s objection goes beyond the Kara Kara toll itself, arguing that central government has been systematically eroding the municipality’s independent revenue base without providing sustainable alternatives.

The council pointed to the Linden Town Council (Toll) By-Laws 2016, which established tolls for various categories of vehicles and treated the proceeds as council revenue. The toll booth was subsequently reopened in November 2016 to help the municipality meet salaries, National Insurance Scheme contributions, gratuity and other obligations.

The council is demanding that government explain precisely how and when those by-laws were rendered ineffective. It is also challenging the minister’s description of Kara Kara as a “public road”, demanding that government identify the legal instrument through which the road acquired that status and explain what happened to the council’s previous rights and revenue arrangements.

Bulkan meanwhile reminded Manickchand that significant legislative changes were made to strengthen the autonomy of local democratic organs, including the insertion of Section 8A into Cap. 28:01 through the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Act 2013.

He also pointed to the deletion of Sections 157 and 158 and the insertion of Section 206(2), arguing that these changes were intended to reduce ministerial interference and leave local authorities with greater control over their affairs. The dispute also comes against the backdrop of the government’s removal of the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge toll, which the council says generated approximately $70 million annually for Linden.

With that revenue already gone, the council is questioning how it is expected to maintain salaries, garbage collection, infrastructure and other municipal services if another revenue stream is removed.

“Central government cannot remove municipal revenue while simultaneously expecting the council to continue providing services efficiently,” the council said, describing the situation as “financial strangulation rather than genuine local-government empowerment.”

Bulkan further broadened his criticism to Region 10, pointing to the continued absence of a regional chairman one year after the General and Regional Elections. He accused the Regional Executive Officer of unlawful conduct and criticised Manickchand for what he described as her failure to act.

“The intent of the current administration is clear,” Bulkan declared. “It is to deny local government organs their constitutional authority and to starve local councils of a revenue base that allows them to effectively discharge their functions.”

The Linden Council has called for the minister to provide the legal basis for her intervention, clarify the status of the 2016 by-laws, suspend enforcement of the directive pending legal clarification, and provide a sustainable replacement for municipal revenues removed by central government. It has also signalled that it is prepared to pursue legal proceedings to defend what it regards as its constitutional and statutory authority.

---

• bridge toll, Kara Kara, Priya Manickchand, Ronald Bulkan

---