Independent Liberal Party (ILP) political leader Jack Warner said yesterday he could not be blamed for the current impasse between residents in south Trinidad and the Government, as he said it was his former colleagues who are breaking their promises. Speaking at the Debe High School to scores of residents who live along the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway route, Warner slammed the People’s Partnership Government for the impasse, saying it had lost its credibility.
He added: “I told them I shall be fair to them. What is happening now is unfair. Don’t blame me for that. “Furthermore, it seems to me, from what I have been hearing and seeing, that almost every day the Government is going back on its word.” He said if he was still the Works and Infrastructure Minister, the promises he made on behalf of Government would have been kept. Warner’s meeting with the residents of Debe, Mon Desir and South Oropouche came after pleas for help at Monday’s fiery protest in several areas in south Trinidad.
Residents charged that the National Infrastructural Development Company (Nidco) was forcing them to settle for unsatisfactory payments for their properties. However, Warner said: “As Minister of Works and Transport then, I promised fair compensation to all, even to the squatters. I will not, two years later, go back on my word. That is not of the mettle which I was made from.”
He said at the time of his agreement with residents, there were 300 land-owners and 100 squatters, all of whom were supposed to be relocated to Petit Morne, Ste Madeleine and Cedar Hill, Princes Town. Among the promises made, Warner said he agreed that residents living along the right-of-way of the highway could find rental homes, which would be paid for by Nidco for up to a year and not six months as was being offered now.
He said a 100-metre-wide highway was planned but now Government had reduced it to 60 metres. Many people who took out loans for new homes with the knowledge that they had to relocate, were now in financial difficulties, he added. He challenged Government to state where was the extra money that was being saved from the reduction of the highway and to use it to compensate residents fairly.