Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
Samuda (left) and Holness (right)
THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) has warned the Government that it is mobilising a nationwide protest against the recent increases in utility rates.
In the same breath, Karl Samuda, the party's general secretary, has denied claims by party officials that the JLP was responsible for staging Thursday's protest against the rate increases granted to the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS).
Since the start of the year the nation has been jolted by increases in bus fares and electricity bills. This has been compounded by the fact that inflation has been on a canter since August last year and now stands at a towering 18 per cent over the period.
According to Mr. Samuda, enough is enough.
"We can't sit by and allow consumers to be bombarded by price increases and runaway inflation," he said yesterday.
But Mr. Samuda, who revealed the imminent plans, also refuted a claim made by Opposition Member of Parliament, Andrew Holness, that the JLP was responsible for the 50-man strong protest outside the gates of the power company's head office along Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston.
Speaking with The Gleaner/Power 106 News on Thursday, Mr. Holness labelled JPS an inefficient institution and stressed that "members of the JLP pay electricity bills too."
He added: "Yes, the JLP organised this demonstration and I will say further it is not a JLP demonstration because surprisingly many persons have joined us who are not part of our demonstrating team here."
While Mr. Samuda contradicted his colleague's claim that the JLP masterminded the protest, he emphasised that the presence of the JLP officials at the protest was consistent with the party's modus operandi.
The JLP general secretary said party officials who were present at the protest were merely acting in solidarity with the public's plight.
"But to say it was a full fledged JLP protest would be raising it to a level that it doesn't deserve," he argued.
"It won't be 50 people when the JLP acts on a national scale in the interest of consumers," Mr. Samuda promised.
Hinting that the JLP might take its campaign on to the street, Mr. Samuda said that organised protests were a democratic right possessed by the people to lash out against injustice.
"The JLP is famous for protecting the rights of the Jamaican people, whether that takes the form of street action Jamaica will be made aware of it not too long from now," he said.
