Ralph Ban­warie

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Bet­ter roads, a re­li­able wa­ter sup­ply, jobs for young peo­ple, and stronger sup­port for farm­ers topped the list of con­cerns raised by res­i­dents of Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la and sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties, dur­ing a pre-bud­get con­sul­ta­tion host­ed by MP Shiv­an­na Sam on Tues­day.

Speak­ing at the SWA­HA Hin­du Col­lege au­di­to­ri­um in San­gre Grande, Sam said the feed­back from con­stituents would help shape the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ pri­or­i­ties as the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares the 2025–2026 na­tion­al bud­get.

“As your MP, I have lis­tened to your con­cerns,” she said. “I car­ry your voic­es to Par­lia­ment, and this evening I am here to lis­ten and note all your con­cerns so that I can prop­er­ly rep­re­sent your needs in the up­com­ing fis­cal year.”

Sam, who al­so serves as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, de­scribed the na­tion­al bud­get as “a state­ment of val­ues and a blue­print of our pri­or­i­ties.” She reaf­firmed the UNC’s com­mit­ment to “in­clu­sive, sus­tain­able, and peo­ple-dri­ven” de­vel­op­ment un­der Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

East­ern Busi­ness and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ri­car­do Mo­hammed pro­posed trans­form­ing the east coast in­to a tourism hub, high­light­ing plans for a re­vamped Man­zanil­la Beach, a Nar­i­va Swamp board­walk, and long-term ho­tel de­vel­op­ment. He al­so called for in­vest­ment in food se­cu­ri­ty and agro-pro­cess­ing.

San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion Coun­cil vice pres­i­dent Garvin Leza­ma ad­vo­cat­ed for a gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor and youth train­ing ini­tia­tives.

Farm­ers in at­ten­dance ap­pealed for bet­ter crop pro­tec­tion, fer­tilis­er sub­si­dies, and im­proved mar­ket ac­cess.

Fe­lix Per­sad called for the con­struc­tion of a mul­ti-sport­ing com­plex and a mod­ern mar­ket, while urg­ing more sup­port for the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Squad to com­bat agri­cul­tur­al theft.

San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ken­wyn Phillip not­ed that his cor­po­ra­tion cov­ers an area three times the size of To­ba­go, yet re­mains among the coun­try’s poor­est re­gions. He stressed the need for a larg­er bud­get to meet grow­ing de­mands.

Al­so present at the con­sul­ta­tion were coun­cil­lors Daryl Mo­han, Kion Sa­roops­ingh, Renelle Kissoon and Char­lene Mona.