PPP Member of Parliament and former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, has lashed out at the Government over the move to take control of the Berbice river bridge.

In a letter to the media, Mr. Nandlall said every law abiding citizen should be “shocked” by the Government’s move.

He said the move by the Government of Guyana is nothing short of the State compulsorily acquiring private property, without any expressed intention to pay adequate compensation at market value.

“This atrocity was obviously inspired by an ideology that has no respect for the rule of law, the constitutional rights of the citizenry and driven by the unbridled arrogance of those in Government then who felt that this entire country was their private property”.

Nandlall said the move by Government reminds him of the compulsory acquisition of private property under the PNC government back in the 1980’s.

The former Attorney General said with the Berbice Bridge, Guyana is seeing what he described as “the naked authoritarian nature of this Government being displayed”.

He said rather than negotiate from a position that recognizes and respects private property, the Government has chosen the big-stick method of bullyism.

Mr. Nandlall, who is the PPP’s Chief legal mind, said the take over of the Berbice Bridge by the Government will certainly cause irreversible damage to Guyana’s image as an investment destination.

He said “no prudent investor would pump scarce financial resources into a nation where the Government’s first resort is confiscation of their investments.”

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure in a statement last night, said it rejects “the spurious and inflammatory claims” by the Opposition that a private property has been expropriated in breach the Constitution.

The Ministry emphasizes that no property has been seized or otherwise taken by the government. Adding that it also rejects the opposition’s attempt at fear mongering by “exhuming buried legacies of a different era”.

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