No grant forms at south police stations

SCORES of people who went to the Princes Town Police Station in search of social welfare grant application forms were turned back on Wednesday. They were met with a sign saying: “No Grant Forms – Forms available at the following stations: Tableland, Barrackpore, Ste Madeleine, Mon Repos, Marabella and St Mary’s Police Station.”

An unemployed mother of four, Ramdaye Seeraj, 44, who is from St Croix, Princes Town, said she paid
$20 for a taxi to Princes Town Police Station, only to be told there were no forms. She asked, “Why the National Security Minister did not tell us that there are no forms in Princes Town and they have a limited amount in Barrackpore?”

Seeraj said at a time when she had little money to pay taxi fare, she spent $60 on travelling to Princes Town and then to Barrackpore. Barrackpore police could not say when forms will be available for people in that area. There were long lines at the Social Welfare office in Princes Town and in San Fernando, where people who had completed their forms were lining up three feet apart to submit them.

Gemma Baynes, 60, from Moruga, was told she needed two forms of ID. “After standing up for more than an hour I have to take a taxi and go home and get my birth certificate,” she said. Roland Mohammed, 36, from New Grant, is the unemployed father of two. He said he works at a furniture store, but was asked to return to work in May as the store is closed under the stay-at-home orders. He collected his form early at Tableland Police Station and was able to send his documents within an hour.

“I am hopeful that I will get through with this grant,” he said. A release from the Social Development and Family Services Ministry on social media said
application forms for financial assistance, food support and rental assistance are available from police stations throughout the country.

The measures are for those who have been retrenched, terminated or have lost income because of the pandemic. The forms were to be sent to police stations for people who have no internet access and cannot download them from online.