Senior Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Rising crime, bad roads, water woes, growing unemployment, poverty, flooding and lack of infrastructure are some of the issues that continue to plague people living in areas under the purview of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC) despite $21.7 million being spent between 2021 and 2022.
For this year, the corporation’s allocation was increased from $29.2 million to $32.2 million, according to the Government.
In the last three years, the SGRC would have spent $54 million to help improve the lives of burgesses in the northeastern region.
But many electors feel they have not received value for money from the corporation and have been poorly represented by some of their councillors–five United National Congress (UNC) representatives and three from the People’s National Movement (PNM).
The SGRC is considered a marginal corporation and come August 14, power can shift in the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE), according to analysts.
Hoping to wrest control of the corporation from the UNC, the PNM has come up with a fresh slate of candidates to contest the poll.
The party has given the nod to Anisa Williams to fight the Valencia East/Toco electoral district which was held by Terry Rondon for years. Rondon, 73, bowed out of the election race due to health complications.
Also, Sangre Grande North East and Valencia West councillors Paul Mongolas and Simone Gill respectively did not file their nomination papers, citing personal reasons. They were replaced by Elvis Guy and Keva Isaac.
The UNC also screened nominees for the SGRC.
Situated on 355 square miles, Sangre Grande is regarded as the fastest growing region as it serves upwards of 75,000 burgesses.
Of the 58,833 electors who were eligible to cast their votes in the corporation’s eight electoral districts in 2019, less than half voted. Only 24,720 voters exercised their franchise.
As citizens get into election mode, the Sunday Guardian visited several communities which span from Valencia to far-flung Matelot two weeks ago to find out from burgesses if their local representatives have lived up to their promises of providing improved services and enhancing their way of life.
Mini mart co-owner Dexter John.
Shirley Bahadur
‘We do not know their names’
Many did not know their councillors’ names or who were their local representatives.
A few voters even identified Toco/Sangre Grande MP Roger Monroe as their councillor.
Sitting outside a business place, Cumuto residents Roy Elahie, Darryl Mark and Richard Prosper admitted to not knowing their councillor’s name.
“It’s a crying shame we don’t know the name of our councillor and another election is upon us,” said Elahie, a businessman.
They were referring to Anil Maharaj, UNC councillor for Cumuto/Tamana.
In 2021, Maharaj was charged with misbehaviour in public office.
Police officers investigated a report that between January 1 and June 30, 2021, Maharaj allegedly demanded the sum of $15,000 from a SGRC contractor.
The matter is before the court.
The men said they had no desire to vote, as they have not seen improvements in their rural community.
In the last 18 months, three men were gunned down in separate incidents on the bustling Cumuto Main Road. There have also been brazen shootings. Mark said one of the victims was his cousin Dillion Edwin.
“There are no job opportunities for the youth up here. What do you want people to do? You have to sell drugs,” said Mark.
The illegal activities, he said, have been giving the area a bad name.
“There is plenty thiefing in Cumuto, mainly house breakings. It’s distressing people,” Mark disclosed, stating the community needed intervention.
Not far away at Father and Son’s Mini Mart, Anand John was the lone defender for Maharaj, insisting that his hands were tied due to limited funding.
John’s friends shared a different view, insisting that Maharaj was “a waste of time.”
The men began to angrily vent their feelings, arguing they were fed up with promises from both sides of the political divide.
“I will run anyone who comes by my door canvassing votes,” said one of the men in the group.
Roger Boodoo said Cumuto has suffered for proper representation.
Construction work on a landslide along the Cumuto Main Road.
Shirley Bahadur
Crime hits Cumuto, Valencia
From a peaceful village, Boodoo said Cumuto has become a crime hotspot while their roads have been falling apart.
Parabatee Samaroo-Elahie’s home on the Cumuto Main Road was invaded by armed men twice. “You have to keep your gate locked because they are walking into your property to rob you,” she said.
The last time gunmen held up the 63-year-old woman, they stole everything from her home, including the food in her fridge.
“They cleaned me out. Cumuto is no longer safe. I was left traumatised. I had to go for counselling and testing,” she told the Sunday Guardian.
Despite her troubles, Samaroo-Elahie said she would “vote UNC.”
In Valencia East, Rondon’s electoral district, residents also complained about crime.
Operating J-Ray’s Mini Mart at New Valencia Avenue, Dexter John spoke about his business being broken into by a known area ‘pest’.
John said it was time for Rondon to ride out in the sunset.
The businessman said there was little to show for the millions of dollars the corporation had spent over the years.
“They are not cutting the grass in the recreational ground. The savannah needs a light. A lot of things are being neglected,” he said.
Come August 14, John said he will not be voting.
“I’m done with that. No matter who you put in power they are not helping,” John said.
Crime has also been plaguing St Pedro Street. “It have gunmen like rain inside here,” commented one resident who identified himself only as Andy.
Andy disclosed that thieves have been raiding farms in the community.
“Praedial larceny is rampant and the farmers don’t know what to do. You can’t see Rondon and the police. They are both missing in action.”
Toco resident Shirnel Edwards said their community lacked proper sporting facilities for budding athletes.
“We don’t even have a proper recreation ground. The corporation is in charge of that. That is our biggest concern. The young men in the area would have to travel to Larry Gomes Stadium to train which would cost them close to $100 a day.”
Edwards, from Petit Trou Road, said Toco has talented athletes but their skills were being suppressed.
Cumuto bad road.
Shirley Bahadur
Not visible enough
Some residents of UNC Sangre Grande South said Councillor Calvin Seecharan said he was not visible enough.
“Who is we councillors, boy? We don’t see him,” remarked one man outside Original Fat’s Bar on the Guaico/Tamana Road, when asked about his councillor.
“The last time I saw Seecharan was in 2019 and it was not even face-to-face. I spotted a poster of him pinned up on a light pole,” he said.
Taitte Trace resident Anton Sanchez said Seecharan never helped residents in the community get work or assisted the youth in obtaining sporting gear.
Sanchez said the community needed good roads, box drains, water and employment.
“Is neglect all around,” said Sanchez who was indecisive about voting.
Nearby, pensioner Baidwatee Singh voiced displeasure about a narrow drain in front of her house which causes her property to flood when it rains.
Last month, Singh said she showed Seecharan the drain but the problem still exists.
“I called Calvin on his phone this morning and he did not even answer,” she added.
Singh said the poor service by her councillor has left a sour taste in her mouth.
“What you going to vote for this party or that party for when you can’t get anything done? Both of them are the same khaki pants,” Singh said.
Unaware of who his councillor is, straightener and painter Manick Singh said they have been appealing to the corporation for a street light at the one-and-a-half mile mark along the Guaico/Tamana Road which was not delivered.
Kandele Nathaniel
Shirley Bahadur
‘Politicians’ talk turns into lies’
In the Sangre Grande North East electoral district of PNM’s Paul Mongolas, resident Alvin Charles scratched his head to remember his councillor’s name.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Charles admitted and had to enquire from a pedestrian who told him it was Mongolas. However, Mongolas is one of the councillors who has been visible, hosting events in various areas or offering help to people in the community. But not all residents were of the same view.
Charles, of Cyrette Street, said neither the UNC nor PNM deserved his vote because none is better than the other.
“Politicians say all the right things to get into office and after that, they don’t have time with you. Their talk turns into lies.”
He said it was customary to hear gunshots in the neighbourhood as gangs fight for turf.
At Cedarwood Drive, Lisa Guy said their road was in a deplorable state but she will still vote.
Meters from Guy’s home, a mason was seen hastily building a 90-foot box drain.
A stone’s throw away at Rose Avenue, villagers Budhan Singh, Jerry Rayside, Allan Gouden and Oukha Persad convincingly identified Roger Monroe as their councillor.
Told that Monroe is their MP, they admitted to not knowing their councillor.
Pouring their hearts out about poor roads, lack of pipe-borne water and crime in the area, they said they deserve far better.
Richard Camacho
Shirley Bahadur
‘Paving a gimmick for votes’
Gary Lambkin, who lives on Valencia Old Road, said bodies have been dropping like flies in the district, stating jobs have been hard to come by.
He said idle hands have become the devil’s workshop.
“A man just got a bullet in the Cumaca RC Primary School this morning (June 5). These criminals are going anywhere to shoot you,” he said.
Last month, Lambkin’s cousin Ivan Lambkin was sprayed with bullets in the village.
And as the Government moves closer for corporations to collect residential tax, Lambkin said this may put further hardship on the lower class and fuel the crime rate.
He wondered what benefits local government reform will bring to burgesses.
“Under the PNM you do such salt. I am not voting for them,” Lambkin said openly.
Lambkin said he would not be fooled by the recent paving of the Toco Road, as this was a gimmick for votes.
Complaints of rising murders, no pipe-borne water, unemployment, flooding and lack of electricity connection were registered by burgesses in the Valencia West electoral district of PNM councillor Simone Gill,
Loonary Ramdeo of Fern Trace said she recently had a death in the family and could not get a truck-borne supply from the corporation for the wake.
Ricardo Camacho was promised an electricity connection, while Richard Garcia, an amputee, is bracing for waist-high floods this rainy season.
At Damarie Hill, which falls in the Sangre Grande Northwest district of UNC’s councillor Nassar Hosein, several murders have been reported this year, including six-year-old Kylie Maloney at her Blake Avenue home, on January 2.
The gang warfare has residents living in fear.
Jenille Pursue and her common-law husband Kendel Nathaniel of Robinson Street #3 are convinced that joblessness has been triggering the crime wave.
Nathaniel, a father of four, said several members of the community’s football team were either “taken out” or imprisoned.
“Plenty in jail. The community has nothing to offer,” he said.
The couple said Hosein has been trying his best but the issues have been overwhelming.
At Blake Avenue where the majority of gun violence and deaths have occurred, one resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity said had seen Hosein for the first time in three years during a recent walkabout in the district.
“You know when the election is in the air. That is when politicians come out of their holes to fool the people again. I am not going to fall for that trap. People could send a message to the PNM and UNC that they are not taking what is dished out to them but withholding their votes. It’s time we stand up.”
At Coconut Drive, resident and shopkeeper Stacy Beckles who supported Hosein in the 2019 election said her voting days are over.
Before Hosein, Beckles rallied with the PNM.
The area, Beckles said, was plagued with robberies, gunplay, house break-ins and delinquent youths but nothing was being done.
Deoragie Baldeo ponders where her next meal is going to come from at her home on the Plum Mitan Road.
ABRAHAM DIAZ
Water woes
UNC’s Manzanilla/Fishing Pond Kewyn Phillip came in for some heavy blows from burgess Kenrick Ramcallian who suffers from a disability.
For months, Ramcallian said he has been complaining of land slippage in front of his Nariva Road home that has been causing his property to shift and crack.
Water, he said, seldom flows through his tap.
“Twice for the month, I do get water. You can’t rely on the corporation to bring some water for you because it is always an excuse. People suffering in the back here,” he said.
Marquis Road resident Deoragie Baldeo, 68, also complained that water was her biggest headache.
Last month she got a truck-borne supply from the corporation.
“The water is done and I have to fight until I get it again. I am fed up. I voted for the UNC the last time and this election I say nobody is getting my vote.”
In the farming community of Fishing Pond, Jemma Thomas said the clogged drains in the area have been contributing to flooding.
Taxi drivers, Thomas said, charge $25 from Sangre Grande to her Lemond Road home due to the terrible road.
“Most times drivers refuse to come in here,” she said.
Thomas said it made no sense to vote because “things continue to remain the same.”
No electricity, jobs
Along Vega de Oropouche, the electoral district of Anil Juteram, the chairman of the regional corporation, the cry was no electricity, water and jobs.
Many of the residents are squatters.
Mother of eight Rhonda Cudjoe is one of them who lives in poverty.
Two years ago, she lost her Cepep job.
“I tried looking and begging for work. The corporation is not even giving you a little end. Is not me alone hunting for work. Plenty of youths can’t get anything to do so they fall into crime. That’s why the murder rate in Grande is growing.”
Cudjoe said as a loyal UNC member, she would support her party again.
“Juteram could have done far more as chairman of the corporation,” she said.
At the corner of Banfield Avenue, one resident said he had not seen Juteram in ages and he did not answer his phone.
“I voted for Juteram which I regretted. He does not represent his burgesses. That is my opinion.”
Shopkeeper Crystal Harewood said putting in a request for water at the SGRC was frustrating and the delivery time was long.
Harewood pays $150 for 650 gallons of water every two weeks.
“I am awaiting the day when voters can recall their councillors for non-performance.”
Outgoing SGRC councillors
Anil Maharaj-Cumuto/Tamana.
Kenwyn Phillip-Manzanilla/Fishing Pond
Paul Mongolas-Sangre Grande North East
Nassar Hosein- Sangre Grande North West
Calvin Seecharan- Sangre Grande South
Terry Rondon-Valencia East/Toco
Simone Gill- Valencia West
Anil Juteram-Vega de Oropouche (chairman)