Jack wants to stop quarrying in Caparo

Jack Warner will ask his cabinet colleague Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, who is the energy minister, to have two privately-owned quarrying contractors cease operations in Caparo.

The new works and transport minister toured the area Wednesday with his junior minister, Rudy Indarsingh, and Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh who is the MP Caroni East constituency, where the quarry is located.

They showed reporters a section where the quarrying has left a large canyon-like formation the size of two football fields.

Warner said quarrying falls under the portfolio of the energy minister but he would seek the intervention of other relevant ministries to deal with the matter. He said the Prime Minister is aware of problem and he plans to hand her a report on the matter by the end of the week.

The President of the National Quarries Association blames the previous government for not properly regulating quarrying.

Ramdeo Persad told reporters officials did not pay attention to what was happening so the contractors had a free hand to dig carelessly.

"This is negligence on the part of operators and the Ministry of Energy. There should be inspectors doing their jobs on a regular basis. This clearly shows bad practises and bad mining," Persad said.