Deyalsingh: I’ll hunt Hunt

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh brushed off the challenge to his St Joseph seat posed by UNC candidate Ahloy Hunt in the upcoming general elections, addressing a virtual PNM meeting on Monday night held jointly with Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts.

“The hunt is on,” Deyalsingh quipped. “Who is the hunter and who is the prey? I am the hunter.”

Saying he was glad to stand for third time as candidate, he said, “We are going for the trifecta. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Revealing his age as 62, he boasted, “But I feel 32.”

Saying the Government had built the Curepe Interchange and Arima Hospital each for $200 million less than the price budgeted by the former PP administration, he said corruption and mismanagement were now a thing of the past. He said young people would not tolerate corruption.

Deyalsingh hit the UNC for opposing the Government’s planned North Grove housing estate at Curepe, a project the PNM would start if re-elected.

“What manner of person aspiring for leadership of the country will stop a public housing project?” he asked.

Quipping that people commonly view the appointment to the post of Health Minister as so onerous as to be almost a punishment from the Prime Minister, he boasted of being on track to complete his five year term unlike his predecessors. His proudest achievement, he said, was curbing maternal deaths and newborn deaths. While prior to 2015 some six to eight women and 100 newborns died each year in childbirth, he said these deaths no longer occur.

Deyalsingh wanted to bring adult literacy classes to the constituency, remarking that too many young men in the community need to find their sense of purpose. For her part, Gadsby-Dolly who was re-selected as prospective candidate for St Ann’s East, thanked her family for their support during her tenure. Appealing for voters support, she said, “One good turn deserves another.”