RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As cit­i­zens face dev­as­ta­tion from flood­ing and oth­er nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Don­na Cox says grants of up to $50,000 are avail­able to cit­i­zens in need.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Cox said there is usu­al­ly a means test to qual­i­fy for the grants. How­ev­er, she said the means test is waived for those whose homes are af­fect­ed by a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter.

“Mi­nor House Re­pair as­sis­tance up to $20,000 in ma­te­r­i­al for struc­tur­al re­pairs are avail­able. We al­so pro­vide san­i­tary plumb­ing as­sis­tance up to $15,000 in ma­te­r­i­al for plumb­ing re­pairs,” Cox said.

She not­ed that her min­istry al­so of­fers a House Wiring As­sis­tance grant of up to $15,000 in ma­te­r­i­al for elec­tri­cal in­stal­la­tion.

“This is a to­tal of up to $50,000 in as­sis­tance. Qual­i­fy­ing cri­te­ria are prop­er­ty own­er­ship or au­tho­ri­sa­tion doc­u­ments,” she added.

Mean­while, MP for Moru­ga/Table­land Michelle Ben­jamin said fur­ther as­sis­tance should be giv­en to those who have lost their homes to nat­ur­al dis­as­ters. She said while these grants are avail­able to some, she has had dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting help for her con­stituents.

She said 20 hous­es have col­lapsed in her area in the re­cent past.

“Some peo­ple have been able to get a $15,000 grant but this is not enough to re­build a house. So many fam­i­lies are suf­fer­ing and need help,” Ben­jamin said.