PNM Ministers’ cowardice not acceptable says Tancoo

“The PNM Ministers’ new scheme of avoiding the taxpaying citizens who pay their salaries is insulting and cowardly! After seven years in office to have a Minister clandestinely visit Oropouche West over the weekend so that he can issue a press release to say that residents are not getting an acceptable water supply is disgusting PR gimmickry” says MP for Oropouche West Davendranath Tancoo.

According to Tancoo, if the Minister of Public Utilities, Marvin Gonzales had engaged the MP and councillors in Oropouche West “we could have arranged for him to meet affected residents and he would have learned that many are without water for up to 21 days, substantially worse than the 9-day cycle he claims and when the supply is received it is brief and inadequate”.

But like his colleague, Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan, who came like a thief in daylight to visit only two areas in Oropouche West, Minister Gonzales also avoided meeting affected residents and their representatives who have been writing and calling the Minister and WASA representatives for answers. The cowardly Minister chose to meet with Powergen’s senior manager and see Mora Dam rather than speak with residents or their elected representatives.

His proposed solution to the irregular water supply is “perhaps WASA can get close to 700,000 gallons of additional water to go into the Penal Water Treatment Plant”, which in his calculation would “improve the levels of service from once every 9 days to 3 days a week at minimum”.

The Minister provided absolutely no concrete delivery schedule or real project timelines when these grand plans will be achieved. After 7 years this PNM Minister offers nothing except vague promises with no real intention or plan to truthfully address the crises of unemployment and economic development facing this country.

MP Tancoo condemned the PNM continued discrimination against residents of Oropouche West? “I challenge the Minister to meet with residents and their representatives to provide genuine specifications of these plans. If the Minister refuses, then it confirms what we already suspect: that the Minister of Public Utilities is taking the population of South Trinidad as fools and that is as shameful as it is unacceptable.

“If the Minister has a plan, meet with the interest groups and discuss it. If not, stop playing these cowardly games. Resign and let someone else do the job” said Tancoo