Opposition leader Basdeo Panday went to Chaguanas Thursday to meet with residents of Chaguanas West as he stepped up his campaign to take action against the MP for the constituency, Jack Warner. Panday told reporters that as opposition leader he has the right to visit any constituency to hear concerns of the people and to deal with them.
Panday has appointed himself "surrogate father" of Chaguanas West, claiming that the move was necessary since Warner has abdicated his responsibility to properly represent the people who elected him to office. He has also accused Warner of "selling out" to the People's National Movement (PNM).
He met briefly Thursday with PNM councillor Ronald Heera and asked him to support to UNC in its battle against Warner.
Panday also met with several people at the office of Orlando Nagassar, deputy mayor of Chagunas. Most of them have been laid off from the borough because of a lack of funds to keep them employed as temporary contractors.
They told Panday that shortly after the new mayor took office they were informed that their contracts won't be renewed because of a lack of funds. Nagessar confirmed that the workers were retrenched because of the corporation's budget has been cut by $5 million. He explained that Chaguanas needs $300,000 to keep the workers on the job until the financial year ended in September.
The new mayor, Natasha Navas, confirmed that as well in a brief news conference at her office.
"When I took this position this problem was already existing and I understand Mr Rambachan was aware of it," she said, adding that the workers were listed under short-term contracts so there was no guarantee of employment.
She explained that Rambachan knew the corporation was in deficit and could have taken remedial action to deal with the problem.
"I understand that he was advised to break the workers service for a few weeks and rehire them to ensure that the program was running smoothly, but this did not happen," she told reporters.
Rambachan told the Trinidad Guardian the borough found $209,000 to fund the contract workers through very prudent management and accused his successor of not understanding what is going on. "If I was there, no one would have gone home. I would have found ways to ensure continuity,” he said.
Panday, who didn't meet with Navas, promised to write to Local Government Minister Hazel Manning about the problem, which he said shows that Warner is not seeking the interest of his constituents.
"They are telling me that he is never at the office when they go to see him and the workers there don't know what to do to help them," he said.
He promised to visit the office every Thursday to meet constituents and try to help them deal with their problems.
Panday's presence created a bit of tension. He has been highly critical of Navas and has called her Warner's puppet. He told journalists he didn't care to meet the mayor.
"If I wanted to see a puppet show, I will go to the circus," he said adding that Navas is being controlled by "a PNM reject, Satish Ramroop."
Navas said she was willing to meet Panday but said it's OK if he didn't want to see her. "I don't feel threatened by him coming here. He is a concerned politician and it means that change is coming. It is a good start," she said.
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