Social programmes open to all

THE EDITOR: On Monday November 24, in that day’s edition of the Newsday, a story entitled “PNM labour cartels at work” was published. In it, the Member of Parliament for Chaguanas accused the party of discrimination in the distribution of Government’s social programmes. Opposition MP Manohar Ramsaran accused the PNM of deciding who gains access to programmes such as the URP and added that only PNM constituencies “have the availability of Cepep. Gapp, Yapa and the various other social programmes.

In light of these accusations, the Tunapuna Youth League would like to take the opportunity to respond. Ever since the party came into power and these programmes were re-introduced, forms have always been available at the offices of the various Ministries and other venues. On The Job Training forms have always been and continue to be available at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education, while forms for the Civilian Conservation Corps are available at the CCC’s Beetham Office. These forms continue to remain available to anyone walking off the street, making these programmes accessible to “all and sundry.”

With respect to the Youth Apprenticeship Programme in Agriculture (YAPA), we can recall that when the programme was introduced, application forms appeared in the daily newspapers. HYPE was advertised in the print media as well as on the radio and television. Is the Honourable Member for Chaguanas also saying that only PNM constituencies have access to the press? The Tunapuna Youth League has taken the initiative to collect application forms for all these and other such programmes and have them more easily available to anyone who is interested in them. When the Re-training programme was introduced, forms were available in the daily newspapers. The Tunapuna Youth League cut out these forms and photocopied them so that as many as possible were made available to interested persons. The Tunapuna Youth League believes that as a Member of Parliament Mr Manohar Ramsaran in his wisdom, knows how easily accessible these programmes are and we urge him to take up the initiative that we have set out. We would also like to remind Mr Ramsaran that the elections are over and trying to score cheap political points would not be in the interest of anyone at this time and that he should settle down and do the people’s business.

DEON JEFFERS
Chairman PNM
Tunapuna Youth League