Malta needed a Labour government that would pay serious attention to the cost of living problem, MLP deputy leader Charles Mangion told a social activity in Qawra yesterday. Dr Mangion said the government was doing its best to continue deceiving people, but as time passed all this deception was being uncovered. For instance, he said, the Mtarfa By-pass had cost Lm1 million more than originally estimated and there would also be a cost overrun for the St Paul’s Bay By-pass.

Dr Mangion said the government had also deceived hunters and trappers and today even farmers were seeing differences between what they had been promised and what they were getting. He also referred to land in Qawra that is valued at between Lm9 and Lm10 million. The land, said Dr Mangion, was owned by Maltacom, and when Maltacom was sold to Tecom the government had said that the land would be passed back into public ownership. But today the land in question was still owned by Maltacom and nothing of what the government and Minister Austin Gatt had said, had happened.