Charles: Rowley and the PNM continue to fail their constituents

UNC Campaign Manager Rodney Charles is calling on PNM Leader Dr Keith Rowley to account to citizens of this country and explain why he failed to improve their lives during years of PNM rule.

Charles noted that when the People’s Partnership Government took office and began implementing Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s vision of Prosperity for All, development was spread across the country so that communities could finally feel a full part of Trinidad & Tobago.

Charles reminded the population that Dr Keith Rowley opposed this. “In fact, when the Prime Minister announced plans for a $410 million Constituency Development Fund so that MPs would have adequate resources at their disposal to implement developmental projects in their areas, Dr Rowley denounced the plan,” Charles said.

The UNC Campaign Manager pointed out that Dr Rowley has been the representative for Diego Martin West for over 20 years, with 12 of those years in Government, yet even the basic needs of his constituents were never met.

“In his own constituency of Diego Martin West, people have been waiting for years for a health centre in their area. Children in Point Cumana had to wait almost 20 years for a new school, and fishermen of Carenage waited for years for a fishing depot,” Charles said.

“What is the PNM’s legacy?” Charles asked. “In 2010 only 17 percent of the population had a reliable water supply. The people of Union Village in Mayaro had to wait for 100 years to get water and the people of San Fernando, Debe, La Brea and Point Fortin in south western Trinidad had to wait 50 years for their own highway.”

“This is the kind of neglect and abandonment that Dr Rowley’s Government created, and that is the kind of neglect that we face if Dr Rowley is elected,” he cautioned.

Charles noted, “It is this Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, that is advancing the Fishing Depot in Carenage, a new Health Centre in Diego Martin West, and will build a causeway to Chaguaramas in our next term. It is this Government that completed a project that Dr Rowley and his team failed to deliver – the Diego Martin Highway.

This Government, he said, has been focused on development that places people at the centre, empowering people to raise their standard of living, and improve their lives.

Charles noted that the Government is also implementing focused strategies to transform East Port of Spain and Laventille – two of the most glaring examples of Dr Rowley’s party’s neglect and abandonment.

He pointed to the projects initiated by the East POS Development Company and the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development aimed at tackling the root causes of poverty so that transformation would be realized by empowerment of people.

“Dr Rowley has made clear his intentions to cut these and other social programmes if he has his way,” Charles stated. “The only thing Dr Rowley intends to increase, if he wins, is his own salary and the income of his MPs.”

The UNC Campaign Manager stated that in the next General Election, the people of Trinidad and Tobago have a choice, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar – a leader with a vision and a plan to take the country forward, or a man who continues to show that he has no ideas or plans to develop the country, and will put his own interests first.

For further information please contact: Rodney Charles, PRO/Campaign Chair
Phone: (868) 322-1766 – email: rod_char@hotmail.com