Works and Infrastructure Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan says he is weighing his legal options after comments Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner made in relations to the Point Fortin Highway project.
Rambachan said so yesterday after denying he had anything to do with the evaluation of land for Penal resident Rawlins Rambaran amounting to $15.3 million. Rambachan said he was not even the minister when Rambaran submitted a claim for compensation for his land in 2011. Rambaran’s land falls along the path of the proposed Golconda to Point Fortin highway.
At the launch of the Independent Liberal Party’s (ILP) local government campaign in Tunapuna on Saturday, Warner alleged that Rambaran was a close friend of Rambachan and had the valuation of his property upped from $7.1 million in 2011 to $15.3 million in 2012. Warner, waving copies of the compensation claim, said he was prepared to defend his claims in court.
Yesterday, however, quoting from a newspaper article on TV6’s Morning Edition, Rambachan said Nidco vice-chairman Dinanath Ramkissoon had been quoted as saying independent valuators have not, to date, completed their valuations. Rambachan said valuations were done by an independent team at Nidco with affected residents.
He pointed out that Rambaran had made the claim for his commercial residence property in 2011 which was amended in 2012... “before Surujrattan Rambachan became the Minister of Works and Infrastructure. “You (Warner) are going on a platform and accusing me of something I didn’t know at all about,” Rambachan said. He said his lawyers had told him to say very little on Warner’s claim since legal action was being pursued in the matter.
He said Warner was a reckless individual and there was no truth in what he had said. He said he knew Rambaran but they were not good friends. Calls to Rambachan’s cellphone went unanswered yesterday and he did not respond to text messages.