The decision to relocate officers from the Princes Town Fire Station in the wake of complaints by fire officers over conditions at the Station is simply a plaster on the sore of mismanagement and negligence on the part of Minister Fitzgerald Hinds.
Since Minister Hinds assumed office as Minister of National Security, there has been a litany of woes affecting security personnel across the country and a deepening of hell for our Fire Service and our fire officers.
The latest insult to these fire officers, who risk their lives for the national good, is that they have been forced to occupy a building in Princes Town that is overrun by rats, mosquitoes and other rodents while the nearly 100-year old building itself is in a signature state of PNM disrepair.
With the dengue and chikungunya viruses on the rise, and with the risk of leptospirosis prevalent with the presence of rats, Minister Hinds seems busy launching songs to fight crime while condemning fire officers to sickness and worse.
It was only last week that the Fire Services Association revealed that in recent fires at Chaguaramas and in Tobago, fire officers had to battle the billowing smoke and flames without any protective personal equipment (PPE).
This is simply the latest in an indescribably long list of instances in which fire officers were left without any PPE by Minister Hinds and Prime Minister Rowley. One would recall that just a few months ago, the hydraulic lift on one of the fire tenders failed while officers were fighting fires in Port of Spain.
The Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) only months ago evaluated the Princes Town Fire Station and identified a number of substandard conditions at the station. Needless to say, Minister Hinds and the management of the Fire Service gave no priority to OSHA and their concerns, nor to the fire officers and theirs.
With the government withdrawing TT$1.09 billion from the Heritage and Stabilization Fund in December last year, one wonders what are PM Rowley and Minister Hinds really doing with that money?
Where has the money been going?
The recent collapse of the St Johns Trace bridge in Fyzabad clearly illustrates despite this withdrawal, the money hasn’t been going towards infrastructural works. The rise in dengue cases clearly illustrate that the money has not being going towards public health.
The increase in murder and crime across Trinidad – and now Tobago – surely does not suggest that the money has been going towards crime fighting.
Where has the people’s money been going Dr Rowley? Into Balisier House? Into the purchase of wigs? Into roaming fees? Into golfing trips? Into someone’s pockets? We know that it surely has not been going into the Fire Service.
The United National Congress stands with all fire officers who continue to be ignored and devalued by this PNM administration, and who continue to risk their lives for our fellow men.
A UNC government will act with haste to ensure that fire officers are equipped with the needed PPE and that fire stations and tenders are operating as required by OSHA. The continued ignoring and endangering of the fire service and its officers by the PNM must be condemned.
Under the PNM, the country is burning down, but Rowley and Hinds are “jamming still”.
Respectfully submitted
RUDRANATH INDARSINGH
Member of Parliament for Couva South and SHADOW RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE
MINISTRY OF LABOUR and TOBAGO AFFAIRS.