Residents want Panday's hometown roads repaired

A fitting gift or tribute to former prime minister Basdeo Panday would be for the government to fix the roads at St Julien’s Village, Princes Town where he grew up and attended primary school.

The suggestion came from Nadera Arjoon, head teacher at the St Julien’s Basdeo Panday Early Childhood Centre. She said fixing the roads in his memory is the most fitting tribute one could give.

In his early years, Panday walked to school without shoes, four miles to and from his home in the Coonooks to St Julien’s Presbyterian Primary School.

There have been multiple suggestions to rename the Piarco International Airport after him, and for him to be given the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ORTT).

Arjoon said parts of the main road in the village are not in a much better condition than when Panday, who died at 90, lived there some seven decades ago.

The road is scarred with multiple landslips and in some areas, the surface is just a combination of mud, gravel and huge stones.

“This is unacceptable for a community which raised a prime minister.”

Last Wednesday, Newsday visited the village after Panday's death on January 1.

Arjoon said villagers had pooled their resources to fix sections of the road.

“And these are not people who have a lot of wealth. The community is generally low-income,” Arjoon said.

She said the Princes Town Regional Corporation (PTRC) has offered assistance in the past, but is constrained, as repairing the main road falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works and Transport.

There have been numerous protests by villagers and communication with Minister of Works Rohan Sinanan through their MP, Barry Padarath.

Sharing similar views, another resident, Parasram Ramkissoon, recalled recently two members of a family died in a fire because numerous landslips prevented firetrucks from getting to the burning house.

Doodooman Sankar and his wife Ramdaye died after being trapped in the house. Sankar was a stroke victim and was cared for by his wife. Family members were outraged that the firetruck, which could have reached their home in ten minutes, had to take a 45-minute detour.

Arjoon questioned whether the couple could have been saved had the authorities heeded their calls for better roads.

Both Arjoon and Ramkissoon said they felt Panday’s loss personally, as he never turned his back on his community.

“He always returned home to any event being kept in the community. He was a down-to-earth man who never felt he was better than the people who still live here.”

Dhaniah Ramkissoon added, “He never forgot us. He would always come back and give us hampers. I am very proud of him and I will miss him.”

Arjoon said she was proud of his legacy in education and his thrust to get the children out of the canefields and into the classroom.

She said on his passing, the students at the Basdeo Panday ECCE were taken outside the building, where his name is etched, and were told of his greatness and his death.

“The country, the community and the world at large has lost a great, great man.”