Councillor wants May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 named in honour of O.D. Ramtallie

Councillor for the York Town division in Clarendon, Uphell Purcell, wants the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 named in honour of late Government Minister O.D. Ramtallie.

Purcell says he plans to bring a resolution on the matter at the monthly meeting of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation.

Speaking on Sunday at a People’s National Party (PNP) Toll Gate divisional conference at the Toll Gate Primary School in Clarendon, Purcell charged that Ramtallie is deserving of the honour.

"Mi know an ah expect seh one day dem ah go come seh dem ah go try name it off ah wah labourite, but O.D. Ramtallie...because of his hard work when he was Minister of Works and [because] he initiated this section of Highway 2000, so this yah leg yah must not get no other name than O.D Ramtallie,” he said.

Ramtallie, a former PNP vice president, died last November at the age of 95.

He also served as Member of Parliament for Clarendon Central from 1976 to 1980.

Ramtallie was defeated by the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Mike Henry in the 1980 election.

Purcell argued that the decision to name or rename several infrastructures across Jamaica in honour of JLP members represents partisan politics.

"The Bustamante Highway was built by the People's National Party and we lost the elections and immediately they named it Bustamante Highway. So what they have been doing is going around and trying to name every street everywhere after members of them party and Jamaica must look into it. We cannot tolerate it and allow it fi happen," said Purcell.

He took issue with the renaming of the North-South Highway in honour of former JLP leader and Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

"I remember when Edward Seaga said the highway that the People's National Party built is not what the people of Jamaica wanted and after Comrade Portia Simpson Miller built North-South Highway, I was shocked when the Prime Minister [Andrew Holness] went in Parliament and said they are going to name the road Edward Phillip George Seaga Road."

- Olivia Brown

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