PNM’s division plan will not work—Suruj

There is a “well orchestrated” move to attack the people of south and central Trinidad, Local Government Minister Suruj Rambachan said yesterday. He made the claim during yesterday’s House of Representatives 2010 budget debate.

Rambachan said the attack was being made in the newspapers and he also noted that Monday night PNM MP Fitzgerald Jeffery had queried the number of projects being done in south and central Trinidad and wondered if there was a move to make the capital of Port-of-Spain degenerate. He listed projects for the North, South and Central, saying there were equal numbers.

“What does the PNM have with the people of Chaguanas?” Rambachan asked. He claimed there was a move to get the PP to comment on the issue of geographical lines. But, he said, the public had coalesced around the PP and the division plan would not work.

Rambachan said Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing should be asked what he was doing with some $41 million unspent balances which Rambachan said he had to speak to Lee Sing about recently. Rambachan said Lee Sing said he would put the money into projects.

He said the budget was a gateway to opportunities. He said the Local Government Ministry had received $57 million for transfers and $246 million for goods and services and all corporations were getting increased subventions in 2013. Rambachan said there was need to reform the URP and some URP workers would be seconded to clean hospital floors and be customer service representatives at hospitals.