SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Res­i­dents of Mafek­ing Vil­lage in Ma­yaro breathed a sigh of re­lief when Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, the chair­man of the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help, brought good news that drains in the area would be re­paired. Two weeks ago the res­i­dents came to The Guardian news­pa­per seek­ing as­sis­tance. Ho­bra­jee Boodoo, one of the res­i­dents who plead­ed for help, said vil­lagers feared an out­break of dengue since the drains in the area were in a di­lap­i­dat­ed state and there was an in­fes­ta­tion of mos­qui­toes.

Man­ga­roo said he saw the sto­ry in the Guardian and act­ed. Man­ga­roo and Kevin Williams, the se­nior project man­ag­er at the com­mis­sion, vis­it­ed the vil­lage yes­ter­day morn­ing. Man­ga­roo said he was on­ly too hap­py to as­sist the peo­ple. "No com­mu­ni­ty is be­yond our reach and no project too small," he said.

"We did an as­sess­ment and the project man­ag­er will de­vel­op the scope of works and by Mon­day con­trac­tors would be in­vit­ed to sub­mit ten­ders." "With­in two weeks we can start work. I see an ur­gent need for work to be­gin. We are try­ing to im­prove the drainage in the com­mu­ni­ty. I and my team of field of­fi­cers would per­son­al­ly over­see this project."