Opposition MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj says he is willing to file private criminal charges against officials of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) if the Government fails to intervene in a lawsuit which stalled the Commission of Enquiry into the State-owed company.

Maharaj said that option was available to him having regard to the failure of the acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to act on any of the evidence submitted to the Uff Enquiry.

’If the Government does not act, I intend to act,’ Maharaj said.

He made the statement yesterday during a news conference at the Rotunda of the Red House, and called on Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Attorney General John Jeremie to put an end to the UDeCOTT legal challenge of the Commission of Enquiry into its operations. He said the State-owned enterprise was subject to the directions of the Cabinet.

Maharaj’s statements came in response to the High Court’s decision on Friday to grant UDeCOTT its application of interim relief halting the enquiry’s proceedings until the hearing of the corporation’s lawsuit against the Commission is heard in February 2010.

This has essentially shut down the Commission for the next four months.

Maharaj said that if Manning and Jeremie had the public’s interest at heart, they would file proceedings in the court today to end UDeCOTT’s judicial review action and allow the enquiry to resume its work.

’The Attorney General always has the right of audience in any court to place before the court the consideration of the public interest,’ Maharaj said. And Maharaj said he is willing to undertake what he called a ’risk’ in talking on this matter.

’Some people are afraid they will be killed, they will be murdered, they will be assassinated...This is a risk that everyone who fights this battle will have to face. I cannot keep looking around my back every time I have a battle but if that is how it is going to end then that is how it will end but the issue will not end,’ Maharaj said.