Ramesh L. Maharaj is again threatening to take the Manning government to court, this time over plans for the billion-dollar rapid rail project.The Tabaquite MP was in central Trinidad Sunday along with his parliamentary colleague, Vasant Bharath, MP for St. Augustine, to support villagers who oppose the route of the railway through agricultural lands.
During a walkabout Maharaj told reporters the Manning administration has already paid half a billion dollars in consultancy fees to a French firm for the project.
Maharaj said there are alternative routes for the railway that the government has ignored and suggested that the authorities are acting irresponsibly.
"What the Government intends to do, from the marks we are seeing on the roads, is to bulldoze the homes of people and bulldoze agriculture lands and the Government has not done a feasibility study, it has not done an economic assessment of the project," Maharaj claimed.
He said the project will have an adverse impact on the environment, explaining that it would destroy an underground water table, agricultural lands and homes.
"If they decide to go ahead with project...I will institute a public interest litigation against the Cabinet, in which I would allege, among other things, the destruction of the water table, the environment and the fact that food production would be destroyed.
"The decision by Government to go ahead with this project would be completely irrational and would be unreasonable and contrary to the principles of public law and the provision of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago," Maharaj added.
He said the project would destroy one of the major food baskets in the nation, which is contrary to the government's stated policy of boosting food production by 25 per cent.
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