THE appeal for calm and the restoration of normalcy in Linden continues to resonate as protestors at Linden remain resilient in holding firm to their actions one week after a picket exercise against the electricity tariff hike in the bauxite town escalated into violent clashes with police. Network communities in Regions Seven, Eight and Ten that depend on the road passing through Linden for ingress and egress have been deprived of business and critical social and utility services such as health, water and electricity because of the protest action.
Food and transport costs for Lindeners and interior communities beyond have escalated.
Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn said the discomfiture is piling up with great economic and social losses anticipated in Region Ten and adjoining communities. He joined in the numerous calls for “good sense to prevail”.
Officials in the region have unequivocally sided with protestors who are at present blocking the thoroughfare, obstructing access to the town that is geographically positioned as a transit to Guyana’s interior.
President Donald Ramotar, in his address to the nation on Monday, had cautioned that if protest actions of this nature continue they will cause irreparable harm to investment opportunities aimed at creating more jobs and improving the living standards for the Linden community and Region Ten as a whole.
Dialogue among the government, Region Ten officials and opposition politicians are hanging over the proposals advanced by the government since April and, the other argument against the new tariff structure.