RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The morn­ing com­mute for stu­dents of sev­er­al schools in Bar­rack­pore was dis­rupt­ed on Mon­day as fu­ri­ous res­i­dents staged a block­ade on Rees Road to high­light de­te­ri­o­rat­ing road con­di­tions.

The road­block forced stu­dents from Bar­rack­pore Vedic and Bar­rack­pore AS­JA pri­ma­ry schools to re­turn home, who were un­able to nav­i­gate the im­pass­able street.

Res­i­dents, ex­as­per­at­ed by a lack of ac­tion on the is­sue re­sort­ed to dras­tic mea­sures on Mon­day (June 5), say­ing they had no oth­er choice but to get their voic­es heard.

Around 7 am, they piled up old tires across the road and set them on fire. They waved plac­ards bear­ing mes­sages such as "We Fed up" and "Fix the Road Now."

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the area, Rees Road was found rid­dled with gap­ing craters filled with mud­dy wa­ter from overnight rain­fall, re­flect­ing the dire state of the thor­ough­fare.

In an in­ter­view, res­i­dent Naz Mo­hammed said protests were their last re­sort as they had writ­ten many let­ters but got no re­spons­es.

"We, the res­i­dents of Bar­rack­pore, are peo­ple too, and we are ask­ing for a fair share of the pie," he shout­ed.

A motorist shows the depth of a pothole at Rees Road, Barrackpore on Monday 5 June 2023. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

As res­i­dents voiced their dis­con­tent with cries of "We fed up! Fix the Road Now!", Mo­hammed ex­plained that let­ters had been writ­ten to both Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles and Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan.

"We have been pa­tient for too long. Bar­rack­pore has 25 oil-pro­duc­ing wells right here in Jaipauls­ingh, and all we are ask­ing is that part of the rev­enue comes back to our com­mu­ni­ty," he added.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Sama­r­ali Ali, echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments, de­clar­ing:

"We have had enough of this road. We are fed up with the bad con­di­tions."

Ali said stu­dents and staff of the lo­cal pri­ma­ry school, lo­cat­ed a mere 500 feet away, were se­ri­ous­ly af­fect­ed by the road con­di­tions as school ve­hi­cles of­ten en­coun­tered dif­fi­cul­ty nav­i­gat­ing through the treach­er­ous pot­holes.

The res­i­dents de­mand­ed sup­port to re­pair not on­ly Rees Road but al­so oth­er di­lap­i­dat­ed roads like St Croix Road and Jaipauls­ingh Road.

Guardian Me­dia has reached out to Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan for com­ment, and we are await­ing a re­sponse from the Min­is­ter.

Guardian Me­dia will up­date this sto­ry as more in­for­ma­tion comes to hand.