Melis­sa Doughty

Two weeks af­ter Car­ni­val, the stand on South Quay, Port-of-Spain, is yet to be dis­man­tled.When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the site yes­ter­day, the steel and wood­en stand, en­cir­cled by a fence made of wood and mesh, jut­ted out on­to South Quay.There have been re­ports of pedes­tri­ans hav­ing to walk on the road, as the stand im­pedes the walk­way. There have al­so been re­ports of traf­fic con­ges­tion be­cause of the stand.

Con­tact­ed on why the stand had not been tak­en down as yet, Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing said both con­struc­tion and de­mo­li­tion were the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC).In a brief tele­phone in­ter­view, Lee Sing said Saran Sam­path Ltd, a Mt Hope com­pa­ny, was re­spon­si­ble for the erec­tion of the stand. He added that he had been re­li­ably ad­vised that late pay­ments to the con­trac­tor had re­sult­ed in the stand not be­ing re­moved as yet.

The NCC, he said, was re­spon­si­ble for award­ing con­tracts to put up and take down Car­ni­val stands. "The cor­po­ra­tion is un­able to do any­thing," Lee Sing said.NCC chair­man Al­li­son De­mas was in a meet­ing yes­ter­day and could not be reached for com­ment.