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Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen has dis­missed claims by Op­po­si­tion PNM mem­bers that re­duc­tions in over­time al­lo­ca­tions for dai­ly-rat­ed work­ers and oth­er cuts in fund­ing at the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion will crip­ple op­er­a­tions dur­ing peak pe­ri­ods such as Christ­mas and Car­ni­val.

Dur­ing Mon­day’s Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee ses­sion in Par­lia­ment, Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stu­art Young raised con­cern that de­creas­es in the al­lo­ca­tion could ham­per the cor­po­ra­tion’s abil­i­ty to main­tain es­sen­tial ser­vices dur­ing high-de­mand pe­ri­ods. Young ar­gued that such re­duc­tions could af­fect garbage col­lec­tion, street clean­ing, and gen­er­al main­te­nance dur­ing key na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions.

"This is es­sen­tial in the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion, util­i­sa­tion of over­time in the car­ni­val pe­ri­od and oth­er pub­lic hol­i­days, where you are re­quir­ing work­ers to come out af­ter hours, in the wee hours of the morn­ing. Why has this par­tic­u­lar item been de­creased across the board?"