PNM candidate urges PM: Give Moruga healthcare, fire station

PNM's Moruga/Tableland candidate Lisa Atwater has appealed to Prime Minister Stuart Young for improved healthcare for constituents and a fire station for the constituency.

Speaking at a political meeting at the St Mary's Government Primary School in Moruga on April 19, Atwater promised to represent residents' needs to the government.

"Last Friday I was in Tableland and one of the concerns was the fact that the Tableland Health Centre no longer exists and then we in...lower Moruga we have a health centre but it closes. So I will advocate, Mr Prime Minister, Mr Foster and everybody else, that we get a 24-hour access health centre/health facility because we know how important it is."

Princes Town Regional Corporation chairman Gowrie Roopnarine told Newsday the Tableland Health Centre was closed for renovations in the early 2000s under then-prime minister Patrick Manning for renovations but never reopened.

To also save lives, Atwater promised to advocate for a modern and well-equipped fire station for the area.

She said the constituency is poised to lead the country's diversification journey with agriculture and agri-processing. As part of this, she said the constituency needs to increase the production of pineapples.

"We produce the nation's pineapples. We produce a lot of it but we don't produce enough. Over the past five years, we imported over $105 million worth of pineapples, keeping in mind we have plenty land and in 2023 alone we would have imported $17 (million) to $18 million in pineapple – pineapple chunks, slices, pineapple juice."

She added: "Let's look to reduce our pineapple import bill. We have the land, we have the people, we have the resources (and) we have the technical backing of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries. Let us do something where pineapple is concerned."

She said encouraged supporters to try "making agriculture sexy."

"Why don't we understand that when we feed ourselves, when you're feeding yourself, you are a champion in your own life?

"We need to realise that you might have one plot of land or you might have three plant pot but if you put something in it, it will grow.

"You will know what you are eating, you will know how much chemical or not that you have in it."

Atwater will face off against incumbent UNC MP Michelle Benjamin in the April 28 polls.

Speaking before Atwater was Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Avinash Singh. He said the number of registered farmers grew under the PNM from 28,570 in 2015 to 34,020.

"A 19 per cent increase. Thanks to the PNM. My brothers and sisters, the statistics doesn't lie notwithstanding what they might have you believe."

Singh, however, did not give the figures for the period preceding but told Newsday he would request it from the relevant department in the ministry.

Census data from 2004 on the Central Statistical Office's website showed there were just over 19,000 farmers at the time.