Chaguanas East MP and former tertiary education minister Fazal Karim is appealing to the new Government not to slash the Gate programme and to continue the thrust in tertiary education.
Karim said with the portfolios of tertiary education and education falling into the hands of one minister, he expects bureaucracy to step in and slow down the process. Karim spoke with reporters yesterday.
He said: “One single ministry which is going to be a very monolithic ministry, very large and very bureaucratic. Whether they would continue the work we have started is left to be seen.”
Karim said while he was at the helm of that ministry, a substantial amount of work was done to create opportunities for employment. He said it would be sad if several facilities are scrapped as a result of the “discrimination and spite of the PNM.”
Karim said the Gate programme should not be booted since it would only serve to strengthen the human resource capital of T&T. “We have to wait until the budget to see where they are going with that,” he added.
Karim spent yesterday morning removing election paraphernalia off the walls and light poles in his Chaguanas East constituency. He arrived in the Lange Park area in the front seat of a white Mitsubishi panel van and he was casually dressed.
No gimme-gimme syndrome in
Chaguanas—Boodhan
Meanwhile, Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodhan said he has given candidates and political parties one more week to clean up all the garbage left behind. Boodhan said the eyesore created by posters, banners and billboards should be voluntarily removed.
Boodhan also said “Chaguanas is not about a gimme-gimme syndrome, its not about a gimme-gimme situation.
“Chaguanas has always been built on family values and has always been about volunteerism, where people help others to develop.
“Beautification of the environment has always been one of our key pillars in the development of Chaguanas, and this is why I am making this call here this morning for all of us, not only for the removal of election paraphernalia, but also for citizens to have a greater awareness and commitment to the environment.”
Boodhan said he hopes to meet early with the new minister in charge of Local Government and plans to move aggressively to continue the development of Chaguanas with input from all stakeholders.