PADARATH: GOVERNMENT GROPING IN THE DARK OVER 12 HOURS LATER
While hundreds of thousands of citizens endured a torturous experience that lasted over 12 hours in many instances without electricity, water, and telecommunication services the government still appears to be groping in the dark this morning, stated Princes Town MP Barry Padarath.
Padarath, the Opposition Shadow Minister of Public Utilities slammed the government for its poor communication response to the population as well as to effectively and efficiently address the reasons for the power outage that resulted in a complete shutdown of the country.
Padarath has called on the government to set up an inter-agency task force to determine what occurred with a mandate to provide the country with answers as well as recommendations to avoid a similar reoccurrence within the shortest possible time.
He indicated that it was a worrying and troublesome situation that independent power production companies were affected in the way they were that resulted in a ripple effect on other utilities. Padarath stated that this situation exposed the vulnerability of the country that is heavily dependent on a service that is interconnected with other essential utilities.
With little or no clear message or plan the government appears to be groping in the dark this morning over 12 hours later Padarath said. He added that while the Prime Minister and Ministers had the luxury of air condition and hot and cold water operated through generators the rest of the population had to grapple with a non-functioning service that is already substandard. Yet this morning we are yet to hear from the government on what measures are being put in place to investigate this matter and provide alternative solutions.
The Princes Town MP reminded the population that in 2013 there was a power outage in some parts of the country and then Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar marshaled the officials from TTEC, Public Utilities and the Ministry of Energy and provided leadership to have the matter resolved thereby ensuring the nation felt a sense of calm but more importantly that the nation got results and answers in a timely fashion, sadly this didn’t occur last night by all indications.