THE EDITOR, Sir:
I AM calling on the Government to reverse its decision to sell out the Portmore Causeway to foreigners for tolls to be extracted from the citizens of that community. I welcome the expansion and overall improvement of the Portmore Causeway which is the gateway to a rapidly growing city and which should have been gradually upgraded over the years.
This place is the home to tens of thousands of workers of Kingston & St.Andrew who have been sold houses over these many years with the causeway as their access to and from work. The upgrading should have been done from the billions of dollars in taxes which government collects from them.
The Government's high-handed decision to now impose this new upcoming burden upon the backs of the citizens of Portmore is unjust and immoral. I urge the residents to be strong and resolute and to make every effort possible to resist the attempt by government to rape them under the guise of development; development they have already paid for in taxes.
If the government is not willing to improve the Causeway with a part of the people's taxes and wishes instead to give NWROC/Highway 2000 an opportunity to earn money from Portmore citizens, then the old road and bridge should remain as is, while Highway 2000 builds a new road and bridge, parallel to the existing one, giving the people the choice of using what they now have or paying a toll to use the new highway.
I am, etc.,
PETER TOWNSEND
ndmjamaica@yahoo.com
Vice-Chairman National
Democratic Movement
Kingston 10
