Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Vil­lagers blocked Rapsey Trace in Cu­mu­to with de­bris and then set it on fire dur­ing an ear­ly morn­ing protest yes­ter­day over the de­plorable con­di­tion of the road. The protest caused grid­lock traf­fic that af­fect­ed schools and busi­ness­es in the com­mu­ni­ty.

The vil­lagers are blam­ing both the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port and the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for the state of the road.

Rista La Croix, who has lived in Cu­mu­to all her life, said it is the worst she has seen the road. She said the vil­lagers are frus­trat­ed at the many un­kept promis­es from the au­thor­i­ties.

“The on­ly time we see our rep­re­sen­ta­tive is dur­ing elec­tion time in Rapsey Trace. The vil­lagers have to use bro­ken bricks to fill up the pot­holes so some of us can pass peace­ful­ly. The oth­er is­sue is that the coun­cil­lor has paved one part of Rapsey Trace but the oth­er half is left un­done for the res­i­dents to fix.

“Elec­tion is com­ing close. We are pray­ing and hop­ing that our road gets paved. Please, please, please, please do this for us. We are tired,” she said.

La Croix, stand­ing in the road­way not too far from the burn­ing de­bris, said Coun­cil­lor for Cu­mu­to/Tamana Anil Ma­haraj is aware of the de­plorable road con­di­tions.

She said: “All we have been hear­ing from him is that the mon­ey wasn’t re­leased. That’s all we have been hear­ing from him, how much mon­ey was re­leased and why it couldn’t be fixed.”

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Ma­haraj said he has been try­ing to find a so­lu­tion for the vil­lagers but the road does not fall un­der the purview of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

“I have con­tact­ed the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port about Rapsey Trace. I was told that a con­tract was award­ed to a con­trac­tor and the work was ex­pect­ed to com­mence on June 1. How­ev­er, this did not ma­te­ri­alise.”

He said that was why the vil­lagers de­cid­ed to block the roads.