Chairman of the Siparia Regional Corporation (SRC) Denish Sankersingh said the Prime Minister is wrong in assertiing that the SRC has flip-flopped on a decision to make Siparia a borough.
Sankersingh said there is support once people can benefit in terms of delivery of goods and services and it is just not cosmetic in appearance. He said his political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar also supports any initiative that would improve the lives of her constituents.
“Given that we are dependent on central government for funding and that the regional corporation is not a revenue generating entity, there is support for the borough initiative, once it is substantive and can improve the quality of life of the people of Siparia.”
At a meeting of the People’s National Movement (PNM) at Pleasantville, San Fernando on Tuesday night, Rowley spoke of conferring borough status on the Diego Martin and Siparia Regional Corportions as part of local government reform.
He told his audience the SRC, which is opposition-controlled, voted for the region to become a borough. However, he said, when the Leader of the Opposition found out what was going to happen, it had now changed its mind about wanting to become a borough.
“Having voted for it, in the spirit of understanding that they would benefit from having their status lifted and that we are going to put new management structures in place with the local government reform exercise, all of a sudden, like everything else, they will not agree.”Rowley said he knows the majority of people want to progress and assured them it would happen.
“It has nothing to do with who is your MP, it has to do with who is your government.”
Rowley said the PNM has always been committed to local government reform, pointing out that it was one of the stipulations in the Vision 2020 document to allow citizens to participate in the decision-making process of local authorities.
“In the PNM we see local government as bringing down authority and responsibility of service right to your doorsteps, because what you need, where you live, are local government issues.”
He said with a reformed local government, issues of resources which challenge the delivery of structure or mechanisms to build or fix roads, potholes and deal with rat infestation will change
“We are saying to them, we are going to change that. We are going to put executive authority in all 14 corporations, put them in a position of funds where they will not be in position to say, I don’t have funds to fix a road or fix a drain or to service you.”
Noting the lack of opposition support for local government reform which has been on the PNM agenda for over 40 years, Rowley said he has instructed Minister of Rural Development and Local Government, Faris Al-Rawi to go to all 14 corporations and talk to them directly ,because the government is not relying on the UNC support to bring about the changes required.
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