PM Kamla says farmers' protest won't distract her from serving entire nation

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told the Guardian newspaper Wednesday nothing will distract her from serving the entire nation as opposed to dealing only with sectoral interest.

She was commenting on an incident outside the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) in Port of Spain where farmers mobbed her and tried to block her as she left following a ceremony to hand over keys to people for HDC homes.

Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal, who witnessed what happened, denounced the behaviour of the protesters, calling it “a gross disrespect to the Prime Minister.”

The farmers demanded that Persad-Bissessar fire Moonilal over the issue of the bulldozing of farm lands in D'Abadie and Chaguanas.

Persad-Bissessar told the paper such incidents would not cause her to shift her focus from serving the national community. “I will not be distracted,” she stated. While acknowledging that the farmers "may have cause for concern” she said they could have handled the protest differently. 

Moonilal said the farmers “hounded down the Prime Minister and that was in no way a good thing as dialogue is continuing on the matter.”

Persad-Bissessar has asked Moonilal and Food Production Minister Vasant Bharath to meet farmers on Thursday to try to resolve the impasse. Last week Moonilal offered compensation for the crops that were destroyed, which the farmers accepted.

However they have rejected a suggestion that they be relocated and that the HDC continue with the building of houses on lands that they have farmed for many years. 

Moonilal told the Guardian he would attend Thursday's meeting and do everything possible to ensure the matter is resolved amicably. However he stressed that the farmers should “take out their frustrations on me and not the Prime Minister.”