Where has Bas been?By RICHARDSON DHALAI Saturday, August 22 2009
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UNC leader Basdeo Panday...
THE representation of UNC political leader Basdeo Panday in the Couva North seat over the years, has been very poor, that seat’s surrogate father, Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner, yesterday claimed.
Speaking at his Couva North management office at Jerry Junction, Warner said he was swarmed by over 100 persons on Thursday evening, with some of them coming from that seat area and others from various areas in the country.
Warner said he left the office at 12.40 am yesterday after receiving constituents at 6 pm on Thursday. He said persons from as far as Tobago visited him.
“I attended to 117 people. From Valencia, Fyzabad, one from Tobago and Sea lots. I attended to all of them and they left very happy,” Warner boasted.
“From the constituency itself, we had 65 people and their main concerns were for roads, box drains and in a rare instance, someone wanted a house. But better roads and improved drainage was the cry,” he said.
Asked whether the number of persons who attended the management constituency office, which was opened on August 14, was a reflection of the representation they received over the past few years, Warner replied: “It was absolutely poor...and they said so, some of them have not seen Mr Panday for over 25 years.”
“He did a lot for the country but all of us must pass the baton to others. And don’t damage the good you have done. If I overstay my time in football, I would have damaged what I have done and I already know when I am leaving and how and why,” he added.
Meanwhile, in a telephone interview yesterday, Panday recalled that during his meetings with Warner’s constituents at the Deputy Chaguanas Mayor Orlando Nagessar’s office, the cry had also been for box drains and road repairs.
“When I met with his constituents, those were their complaints as well,” Panday said.
Asked how he felt about Warner’s meeting with his constituents, he said: “It’s a free country and that is his right but it’s a pity that he isn’t doing that in a PNM constituency.”
Told that Warner had described his (Panday) representation as poor, Panday said, “how is it poor when we are in Opposition and don’t have access to State funds?”
Meanwhile, Warner noted that he had arranged for the surgery of a young woman whose gall stones surgery had been postponed for the past two years. “What was really touching there was a girl for two years who had gall stones and couldn’t get an operation, couldn’t get surgery, I was able to get it for her last night to be performed at the San Fernando General Hospital.”
When Newsday visited the management constituency offices on Thursday evening, there was a traffic pile-up just outside the offices as persons, some single and some entire families, parked their vehicles on the narrow roadway and made their way to the offices.
