En­er­gy Min­is­ter and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal joined work­ers in a cleanup ex­er­cise at Palmiste Park to­day, as part of the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces (NPUPS).

The ini­tia­tive, launched as a pi­lot in De­cem­ber un­der the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, rolled out na­tion­wide yes­ter­day.

Dr Mooni­lal as­sist­ed with garbage col­lec­tion while crews cut and raked grass across the park. He told work­ers the pro­gramme plays a key role in main­tain­ing clean, safe pub­lic spaces and sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

He said the Gov­ern­ment has had to restart sev­er­al pro­grammes to im­prove en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions and urged work­ers to fol­low reg­u­la­tions and car­ry out their du­ties dili­gent­ly.

Dr Mooni­lal al­so said he will work with the Palmiste Res­i­dents As­so­ci­a­tion and lo­cal au­thor­i­ties to fur­ther up­grade the park, in­clud­ing plans for seat­ing, wa­ter and wash­room fa­cil­i­ties, and a bridge.

NPUPS South Re­gion­al Co­or­di­na­tor Gun­ness Ramdeen said 145 work­ers were ori­ent­ed yes­ter­day, with crews be­gin­ning work at 7 am to­day. He said the ex­pand­ed pro­gramme al­lows for more ef­fi­cient main­te­nance of pub­lic spaces and dis­as­ter re­sponse sup­port.

Of­fi­cials said the ini­tia­tive will al­so sup­port flood mit­i­ga­tion ef­forts, along­side drain clean­ing and garbage col­lec­tion.