Faced with dust and debris in front of their homes from an unfinished road paving project, residents of Indian Walk, Moruga staged a fiery protest on Monday.
The residents say the project was supposed to have been completed since last year but the contractor had abandoned it.
The protests started before dawn and by the time residents awoke, the entire road between Perry Young Road and Ramdhanie Trace had been blocked.
Resident Denise Ramsumair said the dust was so overbearing that her grandchildren were falling ill.
“We eating dust, breathing dust and sleeping in the dust. My grandchildren are sick and they cannot even come to spend half an hour in my house,” Ramsumair said. She said her granddaughter’s eyes were swollen and her daughter had to be rushed to the hospital.
“Since before Christmas we dealing with this. It is overbearing and we are fed up of this. We cannot take it anymore,” she added.
Another resident Steve Breton said the cost of vehicle maintenance was high.
“I break an axil right here and I buss up my tyre. We cannot pass here anymore. It is costing us too much. We want the contractor to come back and do the job he started,” Breton said.
Resident Bal Marcano accused MP of Moruga Dr Lovell Francis of neglecting his constituency saying they reported the matter to him several times but nothing was done.
“He doesn’t pass here you know. He goes through Barrackpore. He doesn’t care about us,” Marcano shouted.
Police officers kept watch over the protests as residents beat old drums and sang, “Fix the Road now.”
A senior officer came to the protestors and cautioned them.
Eventually, a team from the Princes Town Fire station arrived and extinguished the fire.
However, the residents said they were prepared to block the road every day until the roadworks resumed.
MP Dr Lovell Francis on his Facebook page addressed the residents’ concerns.
He wrote, “ There as a protest over the road situation at Indian Walk this morning and whilst I fully understand the frustration of residents, please note that works stalled on the site because of the unwanted intrusion of our local criminal element. However, law enforcement is putting contingencies in place and the contractor has promised to commence paving the road tomorrow (Tuesday).”
