Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal says four ma­jor fires in the Pe­nal com­mu­ni­ty over the past fort­night pro­vide a graph­ic re­minder of the ur­gent need for a ten­der at the Pe­nal Fire Sta­tion.

In a state­ment, Dr Mooni­lal said fam­i­lies in Pe­nal, Bar­rack­pore and sur­round­ing ar­eas have had their homes and pos­ses­sions de­stroyed be­cause the Gov­ern­ment has re­fused to out­fit the sta­tion with fire-fight­ing equip­ment.

He said the sta­tion at Clarke Road re­mains just a build­ing, and units from Princes Town and Mon Re­pos, San Fer­nan­do re­spond to fires in Pe­nal and en­vi­rons.

"This gross dis­re­gard for the wel­fare of the com­mu­ni­ties com­pounds the fact that the Gov­ern­ment took eight years to com­mis­sion the sta­tion, which cost tax­pay­ers $71 mil­lion."

He said the con­struc­tion of the sta­tion was a project of the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

The Oropouche East MP said the Gov­ern­ment has of­fered var­i­ous ex­cus­es and pre­texts for not out­fit­ting the sta­tion, the most re­cent be­ing that the equip­ment is on the port.

"With typ­i­cal PNM prej­u­dice, the Gov­ern­ment has dis­played sim­i­lar cal­lous­ness to out­fit­ting oth­er fire sta­tions con­struct­ed by Ms. Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Ad­min­is­tra­tion. I call on the au­thor­i­ties to move with haste to as­sign a ten­der to the Pe­nal Sta­tion to prop­er­ly serve the large catch­ment com­mu­ni­ties," he said.