Road cleaners line up for hours for payment

Persons who were employed under the annual Christmas road cleaning programme administered by the Roads, Buildings & General Services Authority (BRAGSA), experienced major headaches when collecting their pay yesterday, December 23, 2024.

The eight-day programme commenced on Monday, December 2, 2024, and touched all constituencies across mainland St Vincent, as well as in the Grenadines.

The country-wide initiative saw 5,685 persons being employed, tasked with the pruning of trees and general road cleaning.

On Monday, December 23, crowds gathered on the premises of Bank of St Vincent and the Grenadines (BoSVG) for the scheduled payout from as early as 7:00 a.m.

Crowds were forced to brave the hot sun and the City chaos brought on as a result of people completing last-minute Christmas shopping.

Recipients complained about the set-up for the payouts as they were required to draw numbers and then wait for the number to be called.

Some persons abandoned their spots in the queue to go and complete other errands before returning later.

“Since early morning I reach down here. If you see people. I left and come back and the lines still so,” a man disclosed.

Payments were set to be distributed from 8:30 a.m at the bank’s Kingstown headquarters.

“I can’t believe is this here we have to go through for just $150. People out here hours, hours,” a woman complained.

Up to 2:30 p.m scores of people were still lined up waiting for payments to be processed.

Payments were also issued to Bequia and Union Island residents on Monday. The road cleaning programme was calculated to cost an estimated EC$3 million.