Acting Prime Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal says the People's Partnership will be stepping up its campaign for this month's local government election after a recent NACTA poll showed the PP trailing the People's National Movement."We take polls very seriously because they are a snapshot of a particular time. But you know, whatever the polls says, we work hard and we continue to work hard," Moonilal said yesterday.
He was at a function to rename a primary school in Debe the Dr Roodal Moonilal Ramai Trace SDMS Primary School.Although the poll suggested the United National Congress (UNC) was ahead of the PNM for the October 21 elections, the PP, as a coalition government, fell behind the PNM.However, Moonilal was confident the PP could pull off a victory against the PNM and the new Independent Liberal Party (ILP), which has been gaining ground since its leader Jack Warner won the Chaguanas West by-election in July.
He added: "The NACTA poll... we saw the results and so on... it means that we have to work. We are, I think, six per cent behind the PNM in some areas."It means we must work harder and push faster, so I am confident that our campaigners and activists will step up to the plate."I will be on the campaign trail this week with various candidates. We will continue to work hard and reverse the polls if they are against us and increase our leads if the polls are for us.
"We take the polls seriously, of course, but we also work extremely hard in various areas," Moonilal said.On Monday, the PP will hold a meeting at the Princes Town promenade.
Couva hospital
When completed, the Couva Children's Hospital will be able to withstand even "doomsday," acting Prime Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said yesterday.Speaking at the newly-renamed Dr Roodal Moonilal Ramai Trace SDMS Primary School, Moonilal said the controversial project would be able to withstand a massive earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale."What we can tell you is that in a doomsday scenario, that hospital will be standing," Moonilal said.
Saying the Government had withstood criticism and opposition over the project, he added: "Our researchers and technical people, when we met, they indicated the fault line was there and an earthquake can take place in the next 500 to 2,500 years."The hospital is being built for 100 years but the design of that hospital will resist a 7.1 on the Richter scale, an earthquake of that magnitude, so that it will be a hospital built to withstand."