Am­bi­ka Ja­gas­sars­ingh

Re­porter

am­bi­ka.ja­gas­sars­ingh

@guardian.co.tt

As Trinidad and To­ba­go braces for to­day’s na­tion­al Bud­get, cit­i­zens are voic­ing strong opin­ions on where they be­lieve Gov­ern­ment spend­ing should be fo­cused, with ed­u­ca­tion, crime re­duc­tion, and so­cial sup­port emerg­ing as the lead­ing con­cerns.

Across the coun­try, cit­i­zens are call­ing for a more peo­ple-cen­tred ap­proach, with many urg­ing that more fund­ing be al­lo­cat­ed to es­sen­tial ser­vices that di­rect­ly im­pact dai­ly life.

Siparia res­i­dent, Samuel Toolsie said, “You see crime and ed­u­ca­tion, those are the two we need to deal with - crime and ed­u­cate the peo­ple. That is a fact, sure, sure, sure.”

Oth­ers, like Bev­er­ly Win­ches­ter, from Ari­ma, stressed the ur­gent need for bet­ter sup­port for vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions, es­pe­cial­ly the el­der­ly and fi­nan­cial­ly dis­ad­van­taged.

“The poor peo­ple, the ones who can’t take care of them­selves. I’m con­cerned if peo­ple who are work­ing are still study­ing about pen­sion and their fu­ture plans.” Win­ches­ter said.

Cit­i­zens al­so point­ed to per­sis­tent chal­lenges in the so­cial sec­tor.

De­ok­ie Ram­nar­ine, from Arou­ca, high­light­ed the strug­gles faced by low-in­come fam­i­lies, urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to “al­lo­cate it (bud­get funds) to the so­cial sec­tor.’

“We have so many vul­ner­a­ble per­sons, school chil­dren have no books to go to school, trans­porta­tion is­sues, so I think it should go there, so­cial ser­vices,” Ram­nar­ine said.

Rep­re­sent­ing those with a dis­abil­i­ty, Bernard Mc­Queen, of Kel­ly Vil­lage, ad­vo­cat­ed for an in­crease in the gen­er­al as­sis­tance grants the Gov­ern­ment pro­vides.

“I’d like to get a raise in the Bud­get in the dis­abil­i­ty grant for the month...I need mon­ey to take care of my wife and my kids.”

He al­so called on the Prime Min­is­ter to help those who are dis­placed in so­ci­ety.

“I need Kam­la to help give hous­ing, home­less peo­ple who liv­ing on the street and liv­ing on the road.”

How­ev­er, with vi­o­lent crime re­main­ing a dom­i­nant con­cern, oth­ers ar­gued for in­creased in­vest­ment in na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

“The crime rate re­al high in Trinidad and To­ba­go, be­cause every Mon­day morn­ing when you get up is a one, two and three mur­ders, so I think she (Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar) should give it to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty,” said Mar­aval res­i­dent Dumah Richard­son.

Beck­les, a mem­ber of the De­fence Force, who did not wish to give his last name, em­pha­sised the need for con­tin­ued in­vest­ment in de­fence by the Gov­ern­ment.

He stat­ed, “De­fence for sure, sim­ply be­cause I am part of de­fence... It will be tai­lored to fight­ing crime, I know they claim to have a drop in crime rate but it doesn’t look good.”

As the na­tion awaits Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dave Tan­coo’s first Bud­get to­day, cit­i­zens across T&T are hope­ful that their con­cerns will be re­flect­ed in Gov­ern­ment’s pol­i­cy. With is­sues rang­ing from ed­u­ca­tion and crime to pen­sions and grants, the pub­lic’s pri­or­i­ties are clear, and their ex­pec­ta­tions are high.