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The Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties (MPU) will be closed on Fri­day to deal with a ro­dent in­fes­ta­tion at its head of­fice at One Alexan­der Street, St Clair, Port-of-Spain.

In a press re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the min­istry said the is­sue was first iden­ti­fied in Jan­u­ary and since then its Health and Safe­ty De­part­ment has en­gaged the ser­vices of the Ro­dent Con­trol Unit of the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion on at least two oc­ca­sions, with the unit dis­trib­ut­ing pack­ets of ro­den­ti­cides through­out the build­ing.

Ear­li­er this week, work­ers at the min­istry con­tact­ed Guardian Me­dia to high­light the rat in­fes­ta­tion. The work­ers, who asked not to be iden­ti­fied, said they first learned about the rats when they re­turned to work from the Christ­mas/New Year hol­i­day. They claimed their com­plaints about their health and safe­ty had been ig­nored by the Per­ma­nent and Deputy Sec­re­tary.