SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Ab­sen­tee fa­thers were brand­ed as con­trib­u­tors to the grow­ing crime rate. This ob­ser­va­tion came from Sta­cy Roop­nar­ine, MP for Oropouche West and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture. She was dis­trib­ut­ing gift items to fa­thers in her con­stituen­cy, in cel­e­bra­tion of Fa­ther's Day over the week­end. Speak­ing with the me­dia dur­ing the ex­er­cise, Roop­nar­ine said: "Fa­thers play a vi­tal role in the coun­try, in par­tic­u­lar in shap­ing the lives of their chil­dren from an ear­ly age and keep­ing them on the right path."

She said fa­thers must ful­fil their du­ty by be­com­ing the lead­ing pos­i­tive role mod­el in the lives of their chil­dren. She said if fa­thers con­duct­ed them­selves as de­cent cit­i­zens and took an ac­tive role in en­sur­ing their chil­dren were brought up with sound val­ues, the coun­try would stand to ben­e­fit in the long run. Roop­nar­ine com­mend­ed those fa­thers who worked hard to make ends meet and who have stood by their chil­dren's side in be­ing a provider, both fi­nan­cial­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. Roop­nar­ine was ac­com­pa­nied by Prem­c­hand Sookoo, chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, when she vis­it­ed fa­thers in the con­stituen­cy who were in need of as­sis­tance.