Sacked justice minister Herbert Volney said there was no justice for his St Joseph constituents who were seeking houses from the Housing Development Corporation. He said he wrote hundreds of letters to managing director of HDC Jearlean John who had not even acknowledged them. He said John was very disrespectful.
Volney was speaking in the budget debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon. He said his constituents were in tears as they awaited approval of their application for houses. He added that he hoped Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal "will find it in your way to make even a ten per cent allocation to my constituents of housing stock in the constituency of St Joseph."
He said since 2010, when the People's Partnership Government assumed power, only "ten constituents out of the over 500 I have written have received housing units." Volney said many housing developments had been constructed "and you have people living in deplorable conditions, waiting for over 20 years."
He said as minister he was seeking to have the area south of the WASA headquarters and west of Farm Road developed for low-income housing units. Volney also appealed to Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh to open the new St Joseph Secondary School at Farm Road. Gopeesingh told Volney the facility was 95 per cent completed.
Volney responded: "It is unacceptable for this school to remain unopened even if five per cent is to be completed." He said he had made representations to the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation and the National Security Minister to demolish an illegal fence along the St Joseph River on Farm Road which was designated as the muster point for the nearby pupils in the event of a natural disaster.
He said the fence was erected by a squatter and had not been demolished despite a legal order being granted. "The children have no muster point, 750 of them, and I can't get anyone with the fortitude to uphold the law to mash it down," Volney told legislators.
"What they want me to do? To get a backhoe one night and lick it down? Mr Speaker. Unfortunately I do not want to do that but these children need their muster point," he added. Volney said there was an urgent need for the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation to construct toilet facilities at the Aranguez Savannah.
He said the chairman of that corporation, Nafeesa Mohammed, was responsible for the project not being implemented. "Should I, Mr Speaker, rally 10,000-and-counting constituents into a protest for a toilet? Should I do that? I know it's a smelly issue," he added.