DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Scores of Op­po­si­tion sup­port­ers gath­ered out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, armed with plac­ards, props, drums, and bells to ex­press their frus­tra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment ahead of Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert’s tenth bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion.

Demon­stra­tors came from con­stituen­cies con­trolled by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), in­clud­ing Pe­nal, Ch­agua­nas, Cou­va, Ma­yaro, Man­zanil­la, Pointe-a-Pierre, and Clax­ton Bay. Small par­ty groups from ar­eas such as San­gre Grande, To­co, Ari­ma and Diego Mar­tin, which are con­trolled by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), were al­so present.

Among the chants was a call for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his en­tire PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion to be re­placed by the UNC.

For hours, UNC sup­port­ers chant­ed out­side Par­lia­ment, brav­ing in­ter­mit­tent rain­fall to com­plain about ris­ing crime, wa­ter is­sues, high gas prices, and in­fla­tion.

They ex­pressed se­ri­ous con­cerns about the state of the health sec­tor, with Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion vice chair Shan­ty Boodram don­ning a sur­gi­cal gown to high­light her burgess­es’ strug­gle with dengue.

“There is a dengue sit­u­a­tion in Pe­nal. What is Deyals­ingh do­ing about it? There’s noth­ing hap­pen­ing in Pe­nal!” she ex­claimed.

“Wa­ter, oil prices, crime—every­thing that’s af­fect­ing us in this coun­try right now. Sim­ple ba­sic com­modi­ties like wa­ter in Pe­nal, res­i­dents have to suf­fer. For four weeks, Pe­nal Quinam Road has not re­ceived a sup­ply of wa­ter; De­bidi­al Road, La­choos Road—and they are go­ing to present a bud­get, mil­lions of dol­lars to­day, and then to­mor­row morn­ing there’s no mon­ey for any­thing in this coun­try,” she added.

When PNM min­is­ters ar­rived at Par­lia­ment, they were met with re­sound­ing boos from the crowd.

Dr Row­ley, Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon, and Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Min­is­ter Fos­ter Cum­mings made their way in­side with­out ac­knowl­edg­ing the pro­test­ers.

As the demon­stra­tions con­tin­ued, prop­er­ty tax emerged as a cen­tral theme.

“I think it’s not the right time, and they should re­con­sid­er be­cause we have a lot of poor peo­ple com­ing to our of­fice every day, beg­ging us. How are they go­ing to move for­ward when they can’t even af­ford food or ba­sic med­ical care? They can’t even af­ford ba­sic ameni­ties—doc­tor, a med­ical... this is what we have to face?” asked Sun­dar Jokhoo, coun­cil­lor for Fe­lic­i­ty/En­deav­our.

This sen­ti­ment was echoed by Ch­agua­nas deputy may­or Melis­sa Jadoo­nanan, who crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for fail­ing to di­ver­si­fy the econ­o­my. She said that more at­ten­tion should be giv­en to tourism, which she be­lieves has been over­shad­owed by cul­ture and the arts, and called for in­creased in­vest­ment in the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor.

All heads of the six UNC-con­trolled cor­po­ra­tions were present at the protest, in­clud­ing Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ryan Ram­per­sad, San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ken­wyn Phillip, Ch­agua­nas may­or Faaiq Mo­hammed, Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Gowrie Roop­nar­ine and Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Gow­tam Ma­haraj.

A doc­u­ment cir­cu­lat­ing on­line, pur­port­ed­ly from Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, urged all may­ors and cor­po­ra­tion chair­men to par­tic­i­pate in the protest.

In ad­vis­ing that there would be a crit­i­cal protest at 12.30 pm yes­ter­day, in which all may­ors and chair­men should be present, it said, “Please note that at­ten­dance will be record­ed, and the names of those who do not par­tic­i­pate will be doc­u­ment­ed.”

How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia reached out to sev­er­al chair­men who could not ver­i­fy the au­then­tic­i­ty of the let­ter.