KINGSTON, Jamaica — People’s National Party (PNP) caretaker for St Catherine North West, Damion Crawford, on Saturday took aim at the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government’s proposed rural transportation system, dismissing promises made by Transport Minister Daryl Vaz as “lies”.

Addressing supporters in Santa Cruz, Westmoreland on the final leg of the PNP islandwide bus tour, Crawford challenged Vaz’s assertions that within two years, the rural bus system would transport 650,000 children.

“Now let me show you how labourite lie like show— Daryl Vaz said in two years, his rural bus system will move 650,000 children. The total number of children in primary and high school is 400,070. So where Daryl Vaz going to get the next 200,000 children? That is how dem lie like show,” Crawford said.

He further questioned Vaz’s claim that 100 buses would move 360,000 people daily.

“One hundred bus have 4,800 seats. So you tell me which bus can make 63 trips between 6:00 am and 8:00 am? That is how labourite lie like show,” the PNP spokesman continued.

In contrast, Crawford outlined the PNP’s approach to tackling transportation issues. He said the party would work directly with school principals and guidance counsellors to identify students struggling to attend school regularly. Social workers would then investigate whether those issues are due to transportation, and if so, determine whether the problem is one of availability or affordability.

“Look how much places unuh find it difficult cause taxi nuh want run come up there because it is a farming community. So those who have availability problems, we will contract the private sector providers to make sure we subsidise that trip, that they can make the trip into the hinterlands and come out back so people can reach a school,” he said.

“That means that the money is going in the pockets of the private sector, like the taxi men, but they want the money to go in the pockets of the politicians so they create another system that they can rob and thief and say that the gas missing. The gas is gone,” Crawford continued.

He said, under the PNP’s plan, children whose families are struggling with affordability will receive $2,500 per week for transportation.

“They don’t want money to [go] you, they want money [go] only to themselves. So when I hear dem a talk bout labourite, none of them nuh bright like when Mark Golding inna one grade. Dem nuh bright like when Dayton deh a basic school. Dem nuh bright like when I was in the womb,” Crawford added.

On Sunday, Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon had dismissed what she said were false and baseless allegations from the Opposition against the Government’s Rural School Bus System, for which phase 1 will be rolled out starting September 2025.

READ: Morris Dixon chides Opposition for ‘false allegations’ against Rural School Bus System