OPPOSITION Leader Bruce Golding says that a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government will commit revenues from the bauxite levy to the redevelopment of mined-out rural communities.

“I am giving a commitment that the bauxite levy, which amounts to about $3 billion a year, we are going to commit those funds to rehabilitate and to develop those communities that have been mined out,” Golding told thousands of JLP supporters packed into Brown’s Town Square, St Ann on Saturday night.

Golding said that those communities had been left disoriented, dislocated and disconnected.

“Those funds are going to be used to create new economic opportunities in those areas – to deal with their infrastructure, to provide the necessary community facilities,” he said.

“I am going to make sure that if you happen to live in an area that has bauxite and they come in and they mine out the bauxite, when them and the bauxite gone, at least you must be able to look at your community and say, this is what I got in return for the bauxite that they have taken out.”

“I am not allowing that money to be gobbled up by the minister of finance,” he told the meeting.

Saturday’s meeting was chaired by Mayor of Kingston, Councillor Desmond McKenzie. Other speakers included Audley Shaw, Shahine Robinson, Ernest Smith and the JLP’s candidate for North-West St Ann, Othneil Lawrence.