(Trinidad Express) WORKS Minister Jack Warner yesterday called on
residents to oversee road repairs as, in the new year, poor work by contractors
will have to be redone or payments will not be made.
“I’ve asked the people here to be our eyes and ears. People living here must now supervise …
and they must tell us because anybody who does shoddy work will not be paid and
will have to do it over in order to be paid,” Warner said.
Warner was speaking at Lengua, Princes Town, yesterday after being invited by Member of Parliament for
Moruga/Tableland Clifton De Coteau to tour the area and meet residents affected
by landslides.
Warner described the area as having landslips with roads.
Chairman of the Princes Town Regional Corporation Ramraj Harripersad and councillors Alvin
Lutchman and Rajiv Mohammed were also present.
Warner plans to return tomorrow, on his 45th wedding anniversary with the Minister of Public
Utilities, the head of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and members from
the Self Help department.
He also said Minister of Housing Roodal Moonilal will be contacted.
Four families are expected to be relocated because their homes have either been threatened or
destroyed by landslides.
Samuel and Seeta Beekhie are two of the victims. Seeta said it started with a crack on the
ground and four days later, their home was no more.
She said their 25-year-old son has been living away from them since the house was destroyed.
“It is very, very hard,” a tearful Beekhie said. She said Warner’s visit had given them hope
that their family will soon be reunited.
Naushad Ali also broke down in tears as he spoke about his family losing their home three days ago. He
said he and his siblings and mother have been staying by a relative but they
are hoping for the government’s assistance.
At a gathering at the Lengua Islamic TIA Primary School, residents spoke of poor drainage and WASA
being the causes of the problems.
Warner agreed. He called on contractors to have proper infrastructure before paving and also to
refrain from paving over unfixed WASA leaks.
“WASA is one of the units that cause us too much problems. WASA lines leak and undermine the
land and road and before they pave the road, the leak should be fixed. If even
it takes longer for us to pave the road, so be it, but don’t pave the road with
the WASA leak remaining unfixed. … Contractors who are bad, we must blacklist
them and those who do good work we must praise them and that is what will
happen for 2012,” Warner said.
He mentioned the first phase of the Couva/Preysal Interchange which was opened on Friday at a cost of
$29 million.
Warner yesterday said work on this project was done in record time.
He again spoke about having all roads and bridges fall under the Ministry of Works and
Infrastructure as Local Government is unable to handle such jobs.
Warner said it was a proposal he took to Cabinet.
“There are roads
here where the Minister of Local Government could be the best in the world but
he can’t fix … They don’t have the money, they don’t have equipment, they
don’t have the expertise and therefore we are blaming them wrongly. I am saying
therefore put all the roads under the Ministry of Works.
“Put all the
funding, let us fix these roads because at the end of the day, people’s
concerns are not whose road it is or whose bridge it is or whose drains, their
concerns are that they want their roads fixed, their drains fixed, they want
their landslips fixed. They want us to improve their lives and we must not take
the people for granted,” Warner said.
