National Assembly tackles agricultural land

On Wednesday, the National Assembly had a field day debating agricultural land abuses over the last forty years in the absence of the real Speaker, who is also known to have used agricultural land for personal interests.

This newspaper is in agreement with most of what was said by both Parti Lepep MNAs and LDS MNAs on the matter. It is a shame that Speaker Patrick Pillay was not present in the National Assembly on Wednesday to provide the Assembly and the public at large with details of the several properties (agriculture land) he acquired and amalgamated at Montagne Posee, which he lately sold to a foreigner for millions. It is strange how no one in the National Assembly was courageous enough to speak about Speaker Pillay’s speculation with land that had been earmarked for agriculture.

This newspaper has been informed that Patrick Pillay was due back in the country on Tuesday, but had changed his flight to arrive here on Friday 26th. We are sure that he was aware of what was on the order paper for Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th May. He made sure that he was not around to face the inquisition. How convenient?

The truth of the matter is that the agriculture sector was destroyed in 2009 after the introduction of the IMF programme. It was Ahmed Afif who was the Principal Secretary (PS) for Finance at the time – he insisted and chose to stop subsiding farmers; animal feed factory was abandoned to the private sector and he reduced concession to fisherman – he believed that we should have a level playing field for all and the consumers will get cheap chicken meat from Brazil. And the rest is history.

Now, maybe Ahmed Afif can start talking the truth about everything he knows and did when he was working for this government, which he was part of for a long time and it is only now that he is saying that there is corruption. What about when he was PS – was there any corruption??  

Independent

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