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Min. Brenda Hood |
Government is not happy with the manner in which the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has gone ahead in conducting its national community service programme.
The programme which was initiated by the NDC was launched on January 20, and is geared at restoring national pride as a lead up to Grenada's 34th anniversary of independence from Great Britain on February 7, 1974.
However, Communications and Works Minister Brenda Hood felt that the opposition party should have shown some respect for her ministry by having some form of dialogue before venturing out to conduct the community projects.
"The Ministry (of Works) needs to be respected. You just don't go out there and do things willy dilly and at the end of the day you may have to remove it," she said.
According to the female government minister, checks made with the Department of Community Development also revealed that no communication had taken place with NDC on the projects that were executed.
Senator Hood said while her ministry supports community projects that involve the Ministry of Works, people should first communicate with the ministry. "It was brought to my attention at the ministry level and to the technical people that the NDC Opposition Party went out in various communities and did some community work which we really appreciate, but the fact was that the ministry was not involved, the ministry was not contacted to let us know that this was happening," she remarked.
Sen. Hood spoke of her ministry having a plan for doing things in an orderly fashion.
She said that barricades were erected by Congress and that the names of some streets in the rural community were changed.
She also condemned the use of concrete by the NDC work force to fill the pot holes on Williamson Road in St. George's, pointing out that the street is an asphalt roadway.
Minister Hood is trying to recapture the city seat from NDC's Peter David, an attorney-at-law who defeated her in the 2003 poll.
The senior government minister admitted that there are pot holes around the country, but indicated that at present, there is no bitumen in the country to fix those holes.
"We believe that it is great to assist, and we welcome it. But the fact is, it's common courtesy that if you're in a community and you want to do something, you need to contact the Ministry (of Works)," she said.
"We just want to say to the opposition and to people in general, we welcome the support that they give, we would like them to give assistance, but there is a wrong way and a right way of doing (things), and one of the ways that we would like is (to) communicate with the Ministry (of Works)," she added.
Sen. Hood accused the island's main opposition group of not supporting a request to assist in beautifying the country as it prepared to host World Cup Cricket last year.
"I am not too sure why all of a sudden they (the parliamentary opposition) are coming out now at this time," she said.
The NDC-led national community service programme is expected to conclude on Sunday.
The Congress group is considered as the main political threat to the ruling New National Party (NNP) government in the upcoming general elections.
