Ameen blames stray dogs for Savannah mess

While the in­au­gur­al cul­tur­al event for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions was wide­ly viewed as a suc­cess, con­cerns emerged over the post-event clean-up at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port of Spain, when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the site yes­ter­day.

Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Khadi­jah Ameen said re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for clean­ing the in­te­ri­or of the Sa­van­nah falls un­der the Min­istry of Cul­ture. How­ev­er, she sug­gest­ed stray dogs may have torn open garbage bags left by work­ers from the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces (NPUPS).

“The Min­istry of Cul­ture is han­dling the in­side of the Sa­van­nah, and we dealt with the streets. Last night, while I was there, there were quite a few stray dogs around. They were fight­ing, and I sus­pect they ripped open some of the garbage bags be­cause the area had al­ready been cleaned,” Ameen said.