Schools, highway on Penal/Debe budget wish list

THE Penal/Debe Chamber is demanding its fair slice of the budget which Finance Minister Colm Imbert will present in Parliament next Monday.

The chamber wants government to give priority to completing schools, including the south campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the highway extension from San Fernando to Point Fortin, agriculture and tourism.

Chamber president Rampersad Sieuraj said he dreams of a journey on a traffic-light-free highway from Penal to Port of Spain which could lead to substantial savings in terms of lost man hours, productivity, reduction of carbon emissions, stress levels and road rage.

In the interim he wants to see the Debe to Charlo Village leg of the highway completed in record time.

“The chamber also wants to see the completion of the Ramai Trace Hindu School, the Parvati Girls' and Shiva Boys' High School. Completion of schools should be a priority, rather than sports complexes and swimming pools. Completion should be prioritised, and our MPs must demand same,” he said.

Observing that work is being done on the UWI Debe Campus and the Penal Fire Station, he said these projects must be addressed with some alacrity.

With a slump in the job market and a downturn in the economy, Sieuraj called for greater emphasis on agriculture to create improved economic activity and benefit to the treasury.

He asked for consideration to be given to using Caroni lands to develop a light manufacturing and processing park which would assist the region’s agricultural sector, for which the new Venezuelan population presents a readily available workforce.

“The creation of guaranteed market and prices for agricultural produce would allow for diversification from oil and gas to a measure of food sufficiency and less imports. Our food import bill is annually $4 to $5 billion, and any dent in food self-sufficiency would help our foreign exchange reserves situation.”

He made a plug for eco-tourism as a diversification platform.

“Penal/Debe has much to offer relative to tourism. We have the world-famous doubles stretch, the Banwari site, a confluence of three rivers called the Three Mouths, as well as the Digity/Bunsee Trace mud volcano.

“Why can’t tours be internationally marketed to take tourists from Hilton and Hyatt straight down the completed highway, stop for breakfast/ doubles at Debe, then boat/ski/picnic at Three Mouth, visit the Banwari sit , the oldest archeological site in TT, visit the mud volcano at Bunsee Trace and other places of interest?” he asked

In terms of the legislative agenda, the chamber also called for campaign finance reform, which Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said will be soon be taken to Cabinet, assent of the Procurement legislation and local government reform

He also called on government to address the disparity in budgetary allocation to the Tobago House of Assembly and the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation.

“Notwithstanding the THA Act, why should a population of between 50,000 to 60,000 people get annually billions of taxpayera' money, whilst Penal/Debe, with a population of 90,000, plus 5,000 more Venezuelans, is annually allocated $50-60 million?

“It’s time to rip up the THA Act, or alternatively give the PDRC the same amount of money,” he said.