President Irfaan Ali is of the view that it is no longer feasible to wait on the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to get important works in various wards to be carried out, describing the situation as “hopeless.”
The Head of State voiced this opinion during walkabouts in the Kingston and Alberttown wards where he interacted with residents of those communities, a Department of Public Information (DPI) release stated yesterday. During the community engagements, he announced that drainage and road works for Kingston and Alberttown will be carried out.
The president made known his impatience with the M&CC. “We can’t wait on the city council anymore. It’s hopeless, we have to do it directly from the central government. We’ll include the councillors from the city council and they will work with the community itself.”
According to DPI, in Kingston, a decision was made to have the Ministry of Public Works form a group of residents to clean all the alleyways and drainage in the area. The president also announced that road works in the area will be completed before the end of November.
“We are going to work in the community. The councillors and the ministry will work in putting together a group from the community itself to clear all the alleyways… ensure they are functional and clean and then we’ll work out with the community itself how we can ensure maintenance”, he said.
In Alberttown, residents there raised concerns about drainage, street lights, sewage, and police presence. This prompted the president to ask Assistant Commissioner of Police Simon McBean to investigate the issue of Alberttown Police Station ranks not being active in their duties. “What we have to do is to take the police out of the stations and get them involved in the community …we’re going to do some aggressive work in this community and have outposts”, he said.
Here, as in Kingston, members of the community will work collectively to clean the alleyways and the drainage in the area. Work is expected to commence within the next 12 days, including work on the recreational facility. “From now to next week Wednesday, persons from the community and the councillors have to identify all the resources we have in the community itself and by then we will work out the programme about the work itself.” the president stated.
During his walkabout, President Ali was accompanied by Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar; Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Anand Persaud; Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy; as well as city councillors, the release added.
