A team of cabinet members engaged residents from the South Ruimveldt area on Thursday evening. This engagement was a follow-up meeting to President Irfaan Ali's visit last Saturday.
There, the Head of State addressed the citizens' concerns and promised to make interventions to improve their quality of life.
At the follow-up meeting, a number of issues were raised, and possible solutions were shared while these solutions were commended, the residents demanded that the contracts for the works be awarded to residents.
Shawn Benn, a resident, related, “we as a community, we see works being done by people who have no allegiance to our community, no interest in development and advancement of our community they just come on a hustle do shabby work and they gone.”
“We want the work being undertaken to be done by us, the residents. We live here, and we have to live the consequences of everything that is done to this community,” he noted while receiving loud cheers from the crowd.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha assured the residents that they would be a part of the consultative process when these works are being undertaken.
“We won’t bring people from outside the community to do the work. We will work with you, the residents. This is your programme, and we will facilitate you,” the minister told the crowd.
Among the works planned for South Ruimveldt are the enhancement of roads and several community centre grounds.
A sum of $40M will be spent to desilt some 21 drains. This will reduce flooding in the area. Plans are also in place to upgrade the Lilendial pump station, which is used to remove waters from the land there.
Several other issues, such as housing, security, and job opportunities, were also raised, and it was promised that these issues would be addressed.
