The feature below has been reproduced unedited from NEWSDAY
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| Best team: Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner helps a schoolgirl with her bag of school supplies which she and other students of Tulsa Trace Hindu School received from him and Minister in the Works and Infrastructure Ministry, Stacy Roopnarine, right, in San Francique on Wednesday. |
There is no stopping Jack Warner
The Works and Infrastructure Minister has had a busy week, thus far; first appeasing frustrated residents in Esperanza, in Central, on Tuesday evening, opening two new roads in San Francique in South the next day and in a return visit to the West, later on Wednesday, made sure traffic flowed smoothly during the afternoon rush hour in Diego Martin.
Just as recent polls have indicated, Warner rated himself and Stacy Roopnarine, his fellow minister in the Works Ministry, as the “best performing team” in the People’s Partnership Government.
It was at the opening of two roads, Tulsa Trace and Gopie Trace in San Francique, on Wednesday, Warner noted that it has been said that Roopnarine was assigned to his ministry to keep an eye on him. If that’s the case, there couldn’t be a better watchman, he joked.
“People say she come to watchman Jack Warner, as if Jack Warner needs a watchman. In any event, if she came to watchman Jack Warner, I tell you, every Minister should have a watchman like Stacy.”
“Why?
“Because she delivers, she is delivering, there is no team in the Government today that works better than Minister Roopnarine and I do,” Warner crowed.
He fired a salvo at Minister in the Ministry of Education, Clifton De Coteau, who was at the head table, saying, “None. And Minister De Coteau, you can take that to (Education Minister) Tim Gopeesingh and tell him yourself.”
Warner said his, and Roopnarine’s, goal is to “correct” the years of neglect communities endured under the previous PNM administration.
Road projects are to begin in DeCoteau’s Moruga/Tableland constituency next month, Warner promised, confessing though that he had a challenge to delivering his promise — the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
“The only problem I face is that if you want to see WASA, just pave a road,” he said. The audience laughed.
“That is the problem we have to come to terms with and fix it because it makes no sense, it just makes no sense and that has to be corrected,” he said.
Another problem, Warner is determined to correct is traffic jams.
Arriving in Diego Martin, after his stop in San Francique, Warner presided over the deployment of traffic wardens Starlite Shopping Plaza and Four Roads. He had promised the wardens would be out, during a previous visit to the area last week. They are to be on duty Monday to Friday between the hours of 2.30 pm to 6 pm. The exits from the plaza on to the Diego Martin Main Road would be closed at these hours to allow for the free flow of traffic.
Several persons said they were very pleased with the change.
“This road has never looked like this, it is amazing, imagine traffic is actually flowing, it is amazing,” one young woman said. Another person praised Jack Warner for implementing the measure.
“The man has some great ideas to really help people because we have been suffering with traffic for so many years. I am glad to see that this has made a difference,” the man said.
Warner said he wanted to see for himself how the measures worked.
“It is working quite well. I want to thank all those who helped as this kind of collective effort would make this country a better place,” he said.
However, a broken down bulldozer that has been next to the plaza for more than ten years, bothered him. It is an eyesore, he said, and was convinced the country needed a “generation of curfew and a state of emergency” to fix the country.
“How could you have an eyesore for the last ten to 12 years, and no one said anything. That is causing all kinds of mosquito breeding, this is an area we have to fix.
At all levels there is indiscipline, as there is some kind of competition to see who is more indisciplined, it has to be corrected,” he said.
Warner said his statements were not an indication of Government’s plan to further extend the state of emergency. “This has nothing to do with Government, this has to do with my anger and outrage I see at this,” he said.
Chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, Anthony Sammy, said the bulldozer would be removed soon.
The evening before, at the Esperanza Community Centre, in Couva, Warner also related to the anger of residents, fed-up with promises for better.
They vented their frustration at Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh and on the Government, whom most said they had voted for.
Village council secretary Sherry Ramasray and its president Anand Boxer pointed out that Esperanza, which means “hope” had “lost hope” in their MP saying 997 out of the 1,000 residents had voted for the United National Congress, a member of the People’s Partnership.
“We want deliverance,” Boxer said, adding Indarsingh had last visited the rural community in early January and had delivered the same speech that things will be done that he gave at the meeting.
“Nothing has changed. We plan to load our guns, not real guns but figuratively speaking, because we plan to make sure we get things done for our village,” he said.
But it was Warner, who after listening to the complaints, calmed tempers, saying he understood the residents’ frustration.
“As chairman of the UNC, it grieves me that you have not enjoyed some benefits of us being in Government,” he said, adding some $120 million had been spent in the Couva South constituency.
“I have not heard about people wanting 10 days, or CEPEP contracts or houses, but roads and drains and we shall give you the roads and we shall begin those road works in October,” Warner said.
Warner also called on stakeholders to get together, including the regional corporation, to solve the problems affecting Esperanza and the country.
Delivering on the spot, Warner, during the meeting, telephoned Transport Minister Devant Maharaj and informed him about the district’s bus service, which has been suspended pending repairs to the bus for the area.
He gave the phone to Boxer who also spoke to Maharaj, after which Boxer told residents that the bus service would have been restored the following day.
“Mr Warner, you should be the MP for all 41 constituencies,” a grateful Boxer exclaimed.
Just as recent polls have indicated, Warner rated himself and Stacy Roopnarine, his fellow minister in the Works Ministry, as the “best performing team” in the People’s Partnership Government.
It was at the opening of two roads, Tulsa Trace and Gopie Trace in San Francique, on Wednesday, Warner noted that it has been said that Roopnarine was assigned to his ministry to keep an eye on him. If that’s the case, there couldn’t be a better watchman, he joked.
“People say she come to watchman Jack Warner, as if Jack Warner needs a watchman. In any event, if she came to watchman Jack Warner, I tell you, every Minister should have a watchman like Stacy.”
“Why?
“Because she delivers, she is delivering, there is no team in the Government today that works better than Minister Roopnarine and I do,” Warner crowed.
He fired a salvo at Minister in the Ministry of Education, Clifton De Coteau, who was at the head table, saying, “None. And Minister De Coteau, you can take that to (Education Minister) Tim Gopeesingh and tell him yourself.”
Warner said his, and Roopnarine’s, goal is to “correct” the years of neglect communities endured under the previous PNM administration.
Road projects are to begin in DeCoteau’s Moruga/Tableland constituency next month, Warner promised, confessing though that he had a challenge to delivering his promise — the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
“The only problem I face is that if you want to see WASA, just pave a road,” he said. The audience laughed.
“That is the problem we have to come to terms with and fix it because it makes no sense, it just makes no sense and that has to be corrected,” he said.
Another problem, Warner is determined to correct is traffic jams.
Arriving in Diego Martin, after his stop in San Francique, Warner presided over the deployment of traffic wardens Starlite Shopping Plaza and Four Roads. He had promised the wardens would be out, during a previous visit to the area last week. They are to be on duty Monday to Friday between the hours of 2.30 pm to 6 pm. The exits from the plaza on to the Diego Martin Main Road would be closed at these hours to allow for the free flow of traffic.
Several persons said they were very pleased with the change.
“This road has never looked like this, it is amazing, imagine traffic is actually flowing, it is amazing,” one young woman said. Another person praised Jack Warner for implementing the measure.
“The man has some great ideas to really help people because we have been suffering with traffic for so many years. I am glad to see that this has made a difference,” the man said.
Warner said he wanted to see for himself how the measures worked.
“It is working quite well. I want to thank all those who helped as this kind of collective effort would make this country a better place,” he said.
However, a broken down bulldozer that has been next to the plaza for more than ten years, bothered him. It is an eyesore, he said, and was convinced the country needed a “generation of curfew and a state of emergency” to fix the country.
“How could you have an eyesore for the last ten to 12 years, and no one said anything. That is causing all kinds of mosquito breeding, this is an area we have to fix.
At all levels there is indiscipline, as there is some kind of competition to see who is more indisciplined, it has to be corrected,” he said.
Warner said his statements were not an indication of Government’s plan to further extend the state of emergency. “This has nothing to do with Government, this has to do with my anger and outrage I see at this,” he said.
Chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, Anthony Sammy, said the bulldozer would be removed soon.
The evening before, at the Esperanza Community Centre, in Couva, Warner also related to the anger of residents, fed-up with promises for better.
They vented their frustration at Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh and on the Government, whom most said they had voted for.
Village council secretary Sherry Ramasray and its president Anand Boxer pointed out that Esperanza, which means “hope” had “lost hope” in their MP saying 997 out of the 1,000 residents had voted for the United National Congress, a member of the People’s Partnership.
“We want deliverance,” Boxer said, adding Indarsingh had last visited the rural community in early January and had delivered the same speech that things will be done that he gave at the meeting.
“Nothing has changed. We plan to load our guns, not real guns but figuratively speaking, because we plan to make sure we get things done for our village,” he said.
But it was Warner, who after listening to the complaints, calmed tempers, saying he understood the residents’ frustration.
“As chairman of the UNC, it grieves me that you have not enjoyed some benefits of us being in Government,” he said, adding some $120 million had been spent in the Couva South constituency.
“I have not heard about people wanting 10 days, or CEPEP contracts or houses, but roads and drains and we shall give you the roads and we shall begin those road works in October,” Warner said.
Warner also called on stakeholders to get together, including the regional corporation, to solve the problems affecting Esperanza and the country.
Delivering on the spot, Warner, during the meeting, telephoned Transport Minister Devant Maharaj and informed him about the district’s bus service, which has been suspended pending repairs to the bus for the area.
He gave the phone to Boxer who also spoke to Maharaj, after which Boxer told residents that the bus service would have been restored the following day.
“Mr Warner, you should be the MP for all 41 constituencies,” a grateful Boxer exclaimed.
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