Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial has complained that the process to distribute food cards to the parents of school children who get meals from the school feeding programme is too slow and bogged down in bureaucracy.
Ramdial and her staff members distributed the cards on Monday at her Chase Village constituency offices.
She said the process was frustrating beneficiaries who have been making desperate calls to her offices.
Ramdial said last week she distributed only 50 cards and was given 47 cards to distribute this week.
She added there were thousands of children from 17 schools who live in Couva North. Ramdial said to maintain a smooth flow and ensure there is social distancing, beneficiaries are given a specific time to come to her offices.
“Is it that we have to continuously go to the ministry’s head office in Port-of-Spain to collect 50 cards or is it this week we are going to get more cards to make this distribution easier?”
Ramdial also called on the Ministry of Public Utilities to find the mechanism that would allow financially challenged families to get internet access. She said a lot of services from the state are accessible through online applications.
Anjanie Jattansingh-Ramsahai, a resident of Carlsen Field who collected a food card for her four children, said she was grateful for the gesture from the government. Jattansingh-Ramsahai said her family is cashed-strapped and could not afford data plans to access educational programmes for her children. Jattansingh-Ramsahai said she was making the most use of the educational packages offered on Guardian Media’s CNC3.