THE current situation of social unrest at Linden has caused the Guyana Government, through its Natural Resources Ministry, to begin examining alternative ways of taking commodities to mining camps at low cost. Minister Robert Persaud met Friday with representatives of the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) and the Forest Producers Association (FPA) to discuss the way forward in this regard.
Minister Persaud assured them that alternatives routes are on stream to ensure progress, since buyers have been cancelling orders.
One such method includes establishing a hotline number for operators to make contact on development of alternative routes.
GMSA President, Mohindra Chand told Minister Persaud that operators presently face price gouging by operators taking produce into the backdams.
Mr. Chand also noted that fuel is presently in short supply at Kwakwani, Region Ten, where a significant amount of logging is being done.
Operators are currently forced to pay $75,000 per barrel for fuel. Additionally, representative of the Forest Producers Association, Mr. Kelawan, stated that workers in camps have to be paid, and this is now impossible, since banks in Linden remain closed.
He noted, moreover, that buyers are threatening legal action against suppliers for breach of contractual arrangements to supply on time.
Minister Persaud has assured that Government is currently holding regular meetings with opposition and Region Ten officials to look at ways to resolve the wider issues and bring the mining town back to normalcy.
The meeting with the forestry operators is one in a series being held by the ministry to resolve barriers to allow for operations to progress.