Residents angry about school delay

RESIDENTS of Realize Junction Road, Princes Town, want Education Minister Hazel Manning find out why construction at the Lengua Islamia School has not been completed, although work on the new school started almost three years ago. According to angry residents, construction of the school started in April, 2001, and was expected to be completed by December that same year. One resident, Balraj Harry, said he felt corruption and theft was responsible for the non-completion of the school.

“In 2001, the project was started and everyone in the area welcomed the new building for the children of the area and of course new jobs for the unemployed. But it is coming into its third year and they only have a piece of building to show for it,” Harry said. Harry, who lives a stone’s throw away from the site, said: “Sometimes in the middle of the night we hear iron dragging on the ground and one night I saw them carrying away cement and other construction material.” Another resident, Suresh Bennet, said he was appalled over the snail’s pace at which the constuction was moving. “Is almost three years now. The school that the children are occupying right now is on the brink of collapse, so why are they taking so long to finish the new school. I am calling on the contractor and the Islamic Board to speak out on my concerns,”  Bennet said.