Sascha Wil­son

Six pro­test­ers were ar­rest­ed yes­ter­day as vil­lagers of Scotts Road, Mendez Vil­lage and Pe­nal Quinam Road, Siparia blocked the roads with burn­ing de­bris for the sec­ond day yes­ter­day. Fed up with the de­plorable con­di­tions of the roads, vil­lagers be­gan block­ing the roads on Mon­day and con­tin­ued yes­ter­day.

From as ear­ly as 5 am more than 400 vil­lagers, with plac­ards, blocked the five points of the en­try in­to vil­lages with old tyres and derelict ap­pli­ances as they ex­pressed their dis­gust over the state of the roads. Po­lice said six vil­lagers were ar­rest­ed and charged af­ter they were caught block­ing the road with de­bris.

They plead­ed guilty be­fore Siparia Mag­is­trate Akhail Khan. But af­ter a mit­i­ga­tion plea by at­tor­ney Sub­has Pan­day they were rep­ri­mand­ed and dis­charged. Spokesman for the vil­lagers Mitchell Ra­masar said for more than 40 years the roads in the vil­lage had been ne­glect­ed. "But enough is enough! We not tak­ing it any­more, this is a new year," he said.

COR­PO­RA­TION RE­SPONDS

Yes­ter­day, chair­man of the Pe­nal Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Dr Allen Sam­my and Per­sad-Bisses­sar held a meet­ing with the res­i­dents. Sam­my said the vil­lagers com­plained about the roads, drainage, side­walk and poor wa­ter sup­ply. He said the roads fell un­der two min­istries– Min­istry of Works and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment. He said his cor­po­ra­tion's es­ti­mat­ed cost for the re­pair of Mendez Road was $2.3 mil­lion.

He said they in­tend­ed to send their es­ti­mate to Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Hazel Man­ning to­day. Sam­my said the Min­istry of Works had to do its es­ti­mate for Scotts Road and the Pe­nal Quinam Road. But, Sam­my said the res­i­dents warned that if by Fri­day they did not see any­thing tan­gi­ble they would again en­gage in protest ac­tion on Mon­day.