Rowley: Diego Martin, Siparia to become boroughs

THE Prime Minister on Thursday said Trinidad and Tobago will soon get two new boroughs – Diego Martin and Siparia – which are both now regional corporations.

Dr Rowley was addressing the opening of the Diego Martin South Community Centre.

“The corporation has already agreed and has advanced to the Cabinet that it wants Diego Martin to become the next borough in the nation of TT.

“We have received their recommendations and steps are being taken to accept it.

“So in 2021 there are to be two (more) boroughs in Trinidad. You’ll have the Borough of Diego Martin and the Borough of Siparia.”

He hit Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for criticising the revitalisation of Port of Spain as developing TT for only "one set” of people.

The PM said in the last general election he had vowed his Cabinet would have a portfolio for rural development, and had done so.

Rowley said, “Time to stop that dog whistle foolishness of race and division in TT.”

He hit Persad-Bissessar for having built a multi-million-dollar fishing facility in Moruga which ended up unused, but he was now building a functional facility there.

Rowley said his plan to restore the capital should not have drawn such comments from the Opposition.

Warning against such voices, he urged politicians not to wrongly use TT’s diversity as a plank to get into office.

Saying both school children and adults in Diego Martin have a nexus with Port of Spain, he said everyone does well if the capital city is alive and growing, recalling last week’s Spotlight on Urban Development: The Revitalisation of Port of Spain. He said covid19 would not undo this plan, as pandemics all eventually end.

Rowley answered Persad-Bissessar’s complaint of Siparia having only one electoral seat while Diego Martin has three by explaining the latter has three times the population.

More so, the number of constituencies is decided independently by the Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC), he said, using a set formula.