Former President Donald Ramotar has accused the current government of accepting loans from India that he initiated except those pertaining to the rehabilitation of the sugar industry but State Minister Joseph Harmon says he is unaware of the claim and has urged that the former head of state prove it.
“I say with strong conviction that this government has taken a discriminatory policy regarding the sugar industry because India was there, willing to offer us assistance to help and had the loans. [They were] just waiting on us to do the calculations to say how much we needed,” Ramotar told Stabroek News in an interview.
Ramotar said a meeting was held with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and other officials in January, 2015 and they discussed financial assistance for projects. “For sugar, we had a general agreement in principle to recapitalise the industry and they promised whatever help was needed they would assist,” he added.
