Internal roads not within mandate of Public Infrastructure Ministry, Patterson explains
Sixth Street, Non Pareil, whenever it rains.
Sixth Street, Non Pareil, whenever it rains.

– as Non Pareil residents bemoan state of streets

By Michel Outridge

FOR many years the internal streets and even the main access road in the village of Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara, about 13 miles from Georgetown, have been in a state of disrepair while they continue to deteriorate.

It is fair to say that this village has been neglected over the years, but earlier this year only Fifth Street (a cross street) was re-paved and when asked which agency did the road works, residents could not say.

The main access road was ruggedly patched some time ago, but the internal streets have not seen any maintenance and are in very bad condition.

Sixth Street is the shortest and whenever it rains, sections are impassable as the huge potholes fill with water, causing residents to use the muddy parapet to traverse. And almost all the internal streets in this so-called residential area have potholes, which have resulted in significant damage to vehicles.

However, when contacted on Friday, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson said he would return a call to this newspaper since he was otherwise engaged.

Meanwhile, on his Facebook page, it was observed that the minister posted a comment after he was tagged in numerous postings about potholed roads across the country.
In his comment, he stated that the ministry is not responsible for all the roads in the country – only the major roads and main access roads.

OUTSIDE MINISTRY’S MANDATE
Patterson’s Facebook comment said, “Internal roads are the responsibility of either your regional council, municipality or NDC, thus posting photos of your street, tagging me and then proceeding on a rant about its state of disrepair, seeking to give the impression that the ministry is neglecting its responsibility is unfair. I just wanted to highlight this small matter since of recent I have been tagged with photos of every single pothole in our fair land, while this is useful information, persons have now graduated to claiming that the reason their streets have not been repaired [by me], is because of some nefarious reasons other than the simple truth – that these works are outside my mandate.”

RDC Regional Executive Officer, Pauline Lucas, when contacted on Friday said that maintenance of internal streets/roads falls under the ambit of the RDC and Neighborhood Democratic Council (NDC), but with limited resources and funds they have been unable to perform at full capacity.
She promised to visit the area and make an assessment as to what can be done to have the streets/roads fixed.

 

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