Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall said that it was never the intention of the government to ‘shut out’ the media from asking questions at the stakeholders’ forum of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.
Members of the media were barred by Junior Finance Minister, Juan Edghill from asking questions at the forum yesterday, Thursday July 25, which was held at the International Conference Center.
When asked by iNews for a reason behind this move by the Government, Nandlall said, that the Minister’s statement was misconstrued.
“The Minister said it in a context that it was a stakeholders’ forum intended to and designed to have stakeholders’ express their views…the media would have had and still continue to have innumerable opportunities to ask questions about the project,” the Legal Affairs Minister said.
He added, “It was never the intention to shut out the media, and that impression which is being conveyed is wrong.”
Nandlall accepted the fact that the media is an important stakeholder in the Amaila Falls Project. However, he pointed out that media personnel have more access to the information than the regular man on the street.
Meanwhile, Parliamentarian of the Alliance for Change [AFC], Cathy Hughes expressed her displeasure with the media being barred from asking questions.
