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The Prime Minister has given notice of a parliamentary motion for the setting up of a parliamentary committee to discuss the source of the 'black dust' seen in several localities, notably Fgura and report to the House.

The proposal came hours after the Opposition criticised Dr Gonzi for having said in reply to a parliamentary question yesterday that the dust had not reappeared since August last year and Mepa therefore had no samples to conduct further tests.

The claim that the problem had not reappeared was denied by the Labour spokesmen.

The select committee will be presided by the Speaker and include two MPs from each side of the House. Its task will be to collect all the facts about the issue and report to the House.

Opposition environment spokesman Leo Brincat said the Prime Minister's declaration was shameful and he should be held personally responsibly to any damages suffered by the people in the past years because of the political impotence of his government regarding this issue.

In making such a declaration, the Prime Minister was breaking a promise to get to the root of this problem, and showing insensitivity to the health concerns of the affected people.

The Prime Minister was also confirming that he had never taken this problem seriously, especially because he was afraid that uncovering the cause would show a link to the Marsa power station.

Mr Brincat said Mepa had said it would send flyash samples for testing overseas.

Mepa had also embarked on talks with the university for the problem to be further investigated and it had to analyse the data collected by air monitoring stations to identify trends.

Fgura mayor Byron Camilleri expressed surprise and disgust at the Prime Minister's comments which, he said, confirmed the government's lack of commitment to solve the problem, which residents had to suffer daily.

The government, he said, had been promising to solve the problem since 1999 but instead this had got worse causing further inconvenience to residents of Fgura, where the incidence of respiratory diseases was higher than in other areas of the country.

The residents, the Mayor said, deserved better.