Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Gov­ern­ment is dis­crim­i­nat­ing against the con­stituen­cies of Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, Diego Mar­tin North East and Diego Mar­tin West by with­hold­ing projects for their de­vel­op­ment. That ac­cu­sa­tion was made by Op­po­si­tion Leader and Diego Mar­tin West MP Dr Kei­th Row­ley. He said there were many aban­doned projects in the three ar­eas. He claimed Gov­ern­ment met projects which were un­der­way when they as­sumed of­fice in May last year but took a po­si­tion that it would not com­plete those projects. "To­day we ac­cuse the Gov­ern­ment and we ac­cuse the Prime Min­is­ter and her Cab­i­net of ac­tive­ly dis­crim­i­nat­ing against the peo­ple of the north west­ern penin­su­la, who hap­pen to be rep­re­sent­ed in Par­lia­ment by the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment," Row­ley said.

He said any rea­son­able Gov­ern­ment would first com­plete projects be­fore ini­ti­at­ing new ones. He was speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at the Of­fice of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day. With him were MPs Colm Im­bert and Dr Amery Browne. Row­ley said the foun­da­tion for the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre in Bagatelle, which served the three con­stituen­cies, was com­plet­ed but Gov­ern­ment had said twice in the Par­lia­ment it would not re­turn to it un­til 2013. He said: "And that is against the back­ground of Gov­ern­ment ini­ti­at­ing new projects and al­lo­cat­ing new fund­ing for oth­er ar­eas of the coun­try. We call that dis­crim­i­na­tion." He said Diego Mar­tin was a crowd­ed area with few play­ing fields. He said the North Diego Mar­tin Sports Com­plex, which was un­der con­struc­tion, was an­oth­er aban­doned project.

He said the ground was the home for Mer­ry Boys Crick­et Club. Row­ley said the Care­nage Fish­ing Com­plex al­so was in­com­plete. He said: "We refuse to ac­cept that a Gov­ern­ment that had a de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme bud­get of $3,000 mil­lion this year and an­oth­er $3,000 mil­lion next year can­not find a few mil­lion dol­lars to com­plete these projects." Row­ley said it was naked dis­crim­i­na­tion by peo­ple who swore on the Bible, Gi­ta and oth­er holy books to con­duct pub­lic busi­ness with­out mal­ice or ill-will. On the is­sue of the traf­fic plan for Diego Mar­tin, Row­ley said it was a ridicu­lous so­lu­tion. He said it would not bring about sig­nif­i­cant re­lief to mo­torists.