OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday reiterated his call for the Georgetown Mayor and City Council to abandon the controversial parking meter project.In a statement, the Opposition Leader said he stands in support of those protesting the parking meters and said the project “lacks transparency and brings additional burden to people.”
Jagdeo said that “A reduction of rates will be merely palliative and does not in any way address the transparency issue or ease the burden on our citizens, who are already overwhelmed with excessive increases in almost 200 new taxes, fees and “vattable” items in less than two (2) years of the APNU+AFC government.’’
He accused the government of being two-faced on the matter, noting that the APNU+AFC administration disowned the project by pointing to local government autonomy.
“The government sought to mislead and deceive Guyanese by claiming Cabinet and the Attorney-General had not approved the by-laws. If that is true, then the President should sanction Minister Bulkan. However, there is grave suspicion about this being a concoction to obfuscate the matter. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the parking meter project could not have been implemented without the signing of those by-laws,’’ said Jagdeo.
The Opposition Leader says he remains supportive of the civil society protest and that nothing short of scrapping the parking meter project will suffice.