CATADUPA, St James– THE People’s National Party’s (PNP) Derrick Kellier is accusing members of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of orchestrating a protest to embarrass him at Monday’s commissioning ceremony for the $23-million Catadupa Water Supply Scheme.

“I say it without reservation… it was motivated by those who are seeking power in the constituency,” the Member of Parliament for South St James told the Observer West.

Placard-waving residents of Shortwood, St James, stormed the ceremony during Kellier’s keynote address, with demands for better roads.

Other residents blocked the roadway with huge trees that they felled with power saws, forcing the police to clear the way for Montego Bay Mayor Charles Sinclair; Minister of State in the Ministry of Water and Housing Everald Warmington; Chairman of the Rural Water Supply Limited, Noel Donaldson; General manager of technical services at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Omar Sweeny, and other stakeholders who attended the ceremony.

According to the residents, taxi operators who ply the Montego Bay to Catadupa route are demanding up to $500 in fares as a result of the dreadful condition of the main thoroughfare which runs through the Shortwood community.

“I think you have made your point,” said Kellier, as the protesters demanded that he move quickly to address the problem.

Mollified, the protesters withdrew to the side of the function. However, they returned to the fore as the politicians gathered around to turn on the system, determined not to play second fiddle to the main event.

The system, which was initiated by JSIF at an initial cost of $16 million and for which the St James Parish Council has undertaken responsibility, got underway in 2001. But a slew of technical difficulties delayed its timely completion.

Pointing to the delays that beset the water project, Kellier urged the residents to exercise more patience for rehabilitation of their roads.

Subsequently, he told the Observer West that the road is the responsibility of the St James Parish Council and that a European Union grant for the its rehabilition had been secured by his party prior to demitting office.

“The fact is there is an European Union grant that has been secured for the repair of that road, and two years on, this Government has not seen it fit to fix it. It is in the hand of the Government of the day to see to the implementation of the European Union programmes which they came into office and saw so the people can get the benefits,” he said.

“The people who motivated them to demonstrate did not recognise that it was their own Government that they were putting to shame. The member of parliament has made the representation already. The councillor has made the representation more than adequately already and this grant has been made. The Government must fix the road,” he added.

Kellier, who has been the parlimentary representative for the constituency since 1989, survived a strong challenge from Noel Donaldson during the last general elections in 2007. Donaldson’s former campaign co-ordinator, Homer Davis, the JLP’s councillor for the Cambridge division, has since expressed interest in contesting the seat in the next general elections.