The daughter of a freelance video journalist was killed in a house fire yesterday. Fire and police officers said while the origin of the blaze had not yet been determined they had ruled out arson. Police said Rhea Heeralal, 24, a school teacher, was alerted to the fire around 5 am at the family’s home located at the corner of Sapphire and Topaz Avenue, Cunupia.

Police said her father Ramdeo Heeralal, who supplies CNC3 News with video footage of news stories, attempted to douse the flames which began in the kitchen area but the flames got out of control. Naridoon Heeralal, the mother of Rhea, said her daughter called the fire services for help but the flames trapped her in the kitchen area. Her father tried to rescue her but suffered burns to the upper body, said Naridoon. 

She, along with another daughter, Rhesia, 30, and Ramdeo were able to evacuate from the building. Ramdeo was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where he remains warded. A neighbour, who asked not to be identified, said she heard a woman screaming as if she was being beaten only to discover one of her neighbour’s homes engulfed in flames. 

The woman said the blaze lasted for around ten minutes but its intensity was enough to destroy the complete upper floor of the concrete structure. Fire officers were up to late yesterday attempting to determine the cause of the blaze. Central Division Senior Superintendent Johnny Abraham said police received a report that the fire started around 4.30 am and apparently Heeralal’s daughter was trapped in the house. 

Several friends online expressed their condolences to the family. Fire services spokesperson for Central Trinidad ACFO Mervyn Layne said the body of the woman was found after the fire services operation was completed. Layne said arson had been ruled out. “So far the evidence was not conclusive [as to] the source of the fire,” he said. “Based on the information, we are looking for a cause which has not arrived as yet,” he said.

Officers of the Chaguanas, Tunapuna and San Juan Fire Stations responded to the report.

Petrotrin’s vice-president of human resources Keith Ramnath could be arrested if he fails to appear in court in November 13 to answer a charge of unfairly dismissing Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union branch president Ernesto Kesar. This was the warning from the union’s attorney Anthony Bullock after Justice of the Peace John Dixon adjourned the matter because of Ramnath’s absence.

When the matter was called in the Point Fortin Second Court, Ramnath’s attorneys, former industrial court president Addison Khan and his son Allister, presented a medical certificate stating that he was abroad receiving medical treatment. The charge of unfair dismissal was supposed to be read against Ramnath but there was no magistrate present to deal with the matter.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Bullock said the matter was adjourned to November 13 on the request of Ramnath’s attorneys. He added: “The court was told he is out of the jurisdiction seeking medical attention. We did not get any indication of what the medical attention is for but as soon as the matter is called again on November 13, the charge will be read against him.

“If he does not appear in court on that date, it is open to the magistrate to issue a warrant for his arrest to force his attendance to court.” That was greeted by loud cheers by the dozens of OWTU members who turned out to support Kesar. Earlier on, union members, including president general Ancel Roget and other executive members crowded the courtroom for the hearing and later assembled on the sidewalk outside the court chanting and singing. 

THE CASE

In November, Ramnath signed a letter firing Kesar for an unsanctioned four-hour leave on October 17. Kesar had previously worked at Trinmar for 20 years and was on a five-day suspension from Trinmar for holding union meetings on site when he was dismissed. In May, Ramnath was summoned to appear in court for “victimising the complainant by issuing a letter of dismissal to him.”

For the second time in less than two weeks a group of 16 farmers squatting on 100 acres of prime real estate land at Chaguaramas have lost its bid for an injunction stopping the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) from seizing the land for use in its ongoing development plans for the north western peninsula.

During a short hearing in the Court of Appeal on Monday morning, appellate judges Allan Mendonca, Paula Mae-Weekes and Rajendra Narine dismissed an appeal from the group, calling itself the Guave Road Farmers Association. The group was challenging the decision of High Court judge Frank Seepersad to refuse to grant an injunction on July 31 after he concluded it failed to convince the court that it had a strong enough case over the ownership of the land. 

While the CDA gave an undertaking to stop work on the site while the issue was being considered by Seepersad and the Appeal Court, the group’s consecutive loss gives the CDA the green light to pick up immediately where it left off. However, the group still has a lifeline as Seepersad’s decision on the merits on its case was merely a preliminary finding which will be reconsidered when the substantive case comes up for hearing before him later this year. 

The farmers filed the lawsuit earlier this year after the CDA attempted to reclaim the land from them and began clearing areas at Tucker Valley Road to be used to widen the road and build a car park. They are contending they obtained a right to the land as they have been occupying it for the past 30 years without any interference from the State.

The CDA has disputed their claim as it says that although the land was being used by farmers for the past three decades, those listed in the lawsuit could not prove they were in occupation from the entire time required for adversely possessing the land from the State. The farmers were represented by Colvin Blaize and Farai Masaisai. Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes and Michael Quamina appeared for the CDA.

As part of its ruling the court ordered that the farmers pay the CDA’s legal cost for defending the initial injunction application and the subsequent appeal. A date of hearing for the farmers’ substantive claim is yet to be set and will likely be done when the law term reopens next month. 

If the political leader of the PNM Dr Keith Rowley wants to prove his innocence over allegations of sexual harassment made by a journalist, he should subject himself to a lie detector test.

This was the challenge thrown out to Rowley by United National Congress deputy political leader Dr Roodal Moonilal, who accused him of trying to deflect from the allegations made by former investigative reporter at the Express Anika Gumbs.

Gumbs resigned from the Express last Friday and in her resignation letter she detailed three instances where she claimed Rowley made inappropriate comments to her at his home and office. Rowley has dismissed Gumbs’ allegations as untrue and claimed that the reporter was paid by the UNC to fabricate them.

Speaking at a political meeting at the party’s Oropouche East constituency office in Debe on Monday, Moonilal dismissed Rowley’s claims made at Sunday’s PNM rally at Market Square, Scarborough, that Government was paying people to lie on him and there was a $15 million hit on his life. He said: “These are serious allegations made by a working journalist, an investigative journalist, who is no friend of the United National Congress. 

“I want to tell you that this is a journalist who every Sunday was chasing down from Anand Ramlogan to Roodal Moonilal to Kamla Persad-Bissessar. “Chasing all over the country to write about all kinds of things. This is no friend of the UNC who raised serious issues concerning the conduct of a man who wants to be prime minister, where she suggested that this fella just can’t keep his clothes on.  “If you have an allegation that somebody is trying to hurt you, injure you, threaten you, take it to the police properly. 

“Don’t go on a political platform in Tobago and gallery yourself and feel if you politicise it and draw the Government into that nonsense, it would deflect attention from a serious matter.” He said Rowley’s allegations of a hit on his life came the same day Gumbs resigned from the Trinidad Express. 

“That was the same Sunday that the newspaper had this story about a working journalist. That was the same Sunday when he could not answer that, he said the Government paying people to lie on him. That is what he is coming with instead of answering.” 

He had this advice for Rowley: “My solution is simple, Keith Rowley, why don’t you do a lie detector test and tell us if you kept on your clothes, if you took off half your clothes, all your clothes, if you invited a journalist to come home.” He added that Rowley should know that interviews should never be done at his private residence and that he has three offices that he could facilitate journalists. 

Describing Gumbs’ claim that she interviewed Rowley at his Diego Martin home, he asked if he became prime minister if reporters would be allowed at his home. “I want to tell you I am a minister five years now and no reporter ever came to my house one day. “I cannot invite reporters in my house, that is improper. I have three offices I can invite them to. Rowley has an office in the Parliament, he has one at the Opposition Leader’s office, he clearly has one in Diego Martin but none suitable to invite a reporter.

“So if you’re prime minster, what will happen? Everyday a reporter coming to visit you as prime minister in your chambers? It does not work like that, you conduct government business and public business in public offices, not in your private house,” Moonilal added. He said that the allegation of death threats was also bad for potential foreign investments as it suggested that the country’s Government was trying to assassinate its Opposition Leader. 

Saying that it was far from the truth, he said it was the People’s Partnership who afforded Rowley the privilege to be the first Opposition Leader to have a police security detail.

People’s National Movement (PNM) candidate Faris Al-Rawi may have been campaigning in the marginal seat of San Fernando West for over a year but one of the UNC’s three prospective candidates, Bishop Jankee Ragoonanan, says he is far ahead in the electoral race. 

“Al-Rawi may have walked the entire constituency two and three times already but I have walked over 13 times. I am not a new kid on the block.” Ragoonanan said as he came for screening at the UNC’s office at Paraiso Building, Claxton Bay, last night. His two other nominees—Dr Marwan Abdulla and financial consultant Marcus Girdharie—also came with their contingent of supporters and tassa drummers.

Ragoonanan, who contested the seat in 2007 for the United National Congress Alliance (UNC-A) and who served as a field and research officer under outgoing San Fernando West MP Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, said even though he has not yet been selected as a candidate for the UNC he has been working the constituency.

Although screening started late, Ragoonanan said he was the only prospective candidate well known to San Fernandians. Asked whether he felt he was being put at a disadvantage because of late selection, Ragoonanan said no as he was familiar with the needs of the people. 

“If I am selected here this evening, I will begin a more active campaign tonight,” Ragoonanan said. He boasted no other candidate has worked in the region like he did. He said when Seepersad-Bachan was selected to contest the seat in 2010 under a Congress of the People ticket, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar asked him to work with Seepersad-Bachan. 

“I also served as a councillor for Les Efforts and now I see a need to serve as an MP. 

“I am convinced of my ability. Many are saying this is a difficult seat, seeing there are added polling divisions but I don’t see it as a threat because I am a people's person and we have to get out there and converse with people and show them why they should vote for us,” he added. He said the unprecedented levels of work done by the People’s Partnership would sway voters.

“Coming close to the election date people are going to vote for us. It is a difficult fight for Faris. I have already done my ground work with the intention that I will be chosen,” Ragoonanan said. Abdulla, who is an Egyptian by birth, said he served the people of San Fernando West for over 34 years and was well poised to win the seat if selected.

“The people of San Fernando has given me a lot and the time has come for me to serve in a different capacity,” Abdulla said.  He hoped to set up medical clinics and offer better health care for the people of the constituency. Girdharie, who is 43, said his youth gave him an edge over the other candidates. Girdharie said he lived in San Fernando and was intimate with the challenges of the people of the constituency.

Caribbean Airlines yesterday remained non-commital on whether it was withdrawing its London service from next year. However, it admitted to reviewing its options on the type of aircraft being used to fly the route.

In a press release, in response to recent media reports the airline will pull out of London and return its Boeing 767 fleet to its lessor early next year in a cost-cutting measure, the airline assured its customers that as of now, it continued to service the route.

It added, however, that it had been conducting a detailed review of its network profitability and after intense consultations with Lufthansa Consulting and ICF International (formerly SH&E), two of the world’s leading aviation consultants, certain strategic initiatives were recommended consistent with the current competitive environment.

CAL said the issue was not primarily the profitability of the London route but the operations cost of the Boeing 767 aircraft, which affected other prime routes. It said any decision to stop using the Boeing 767s would favourably impact its profitability in direct and overhead costs by reducing the number of fleet types and the unique support resources required for each. However, it said, arrangements were still in the process of being finalised.

CAL said whatever the outcome of the deliberations, its intention would be to implement alternative network solutions to ensure connectivity to/from London for customers. In this regard, CAL said it would communicate the final decision on the route in a timely fashion to the public.

The woman whose 16-year-old daughter shot dead her stepfather, prison officer Robert Seecharan, has committed suicide. Sherry-Ann Seecharan, 36, took her own life by drinking poison at her sister’s home in Barrackpore.
 
Sherry-Ann’s mother Samdaye Rangoo is blaming her death on the failure of police to provide counseling for Sherry-Ann, 36, and her children following the tragic events they endured. Yesterday marked two weeks since Robert was shot by Mohini Ganase, 16, to stop him assaulting her mother along Penal Rock Road, Barrackpore.
 
Yesterday Sherry Ann, after bathing and drinking poison, started to calmly discuss her funeral arrangements. It took a while for her alarmed relatives to understand what was going on.
 
“(Her sister) Elizabeth didn’t know why so was talking like that, but is only when she start to froth up, she realise that Sherry Ann drink poison

Read full story in tomorrow's Guardian

Two minors were remaned into prison custody this afternoon after they appeared in court charged with the unlawful killing of an 11-year-old boy, who was shot dead while they were playing with a loaded shotgun.
The court appearance of the brothers, aged 13 and 11, took place around the same time the funeral service of 11-year-old Rueben Reid who was shot dead last Thursday.
The brothers appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court, charged with manslaughter and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. They were remanded to the Youth Training Centre, in Arouca until their re-appearance on Friday when the magistrate will determine if bail would be granted.

Read full story in tomorrow's newspaper.

A 25-year-old San Juan man died at hospital on Tuesday night after being shot during a shootout with police on Tuesday. According to police reports, Karim Cain, of Bourg Mulatresse Road, San Juan, died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital while undergoing treatment for gunshot wounds. 

North Eastern Division Task Force officers, led by Sgt Cornelius Samuel, had reportedly gone to Doolarie Trace, San Juan, after receiving information there was a man with a gun in the area. 

Police said when they arrived there around 6.30 pm Cain fired at them. The officers returned fire and shot Cain, who was then taken to hospital. Police said they recovered a Glock 26 pistol with and an extended magazine. Cain, they said, had been previously charged for robbery with violence and narcotic offences.

In a release yesterday, head of the North Eastern Division Task Force, Snr Supt Radcliffe Boxhill, said he regretted the fact that Cain had been killed but was thankful none of his officers had been injured in the shootout. He urged his officers to continue their fight to rid the country of illegal weapons.

In an unrelated incident, also on Tuesday, two Diego Martin men were arrested after they were caught with a gun and eight rounds of ammunition. Police said Northern Division Task Force officers, led by Sgt Pitt and Cpl Pamphille, were on patrol around 4 pm at The Falls, West Mall car park, when they saw two men in a car acting suspiciously. 

The officers searched them and their vehicle and found a Taurus pistol and eight rounds of 9mm ammunition in the car. The men—27 and 26 of Four Roads, Diego Martin—were arrested and handed over to Western Division Police. 

Freelance video journalist Ramdeo “Hero” Heeralal, whose daughter Rheia was killed in a fire while trying to save him and his wife will have to have reconstructive plastic surgery. Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Heeralal’s other daughter, Rheisa, 30, who also suffered burns in the fire which destroyed their home at corner Sapphire and Topaz Avenue, Cunupia, said her father was conscious and doing well in the Intensive Care Unit at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), Mount Hope.

Rheisa said her father would undergo further treatment and observation for the next seven to ten days, at the end of which doctors would decide whether or not they would have to proceed with plastic surgery. “Both his eyes were scorched and he is experiencing blurred vision and a lot of pain but he is coming along very well,” Rheisa said.

Rheisa, who is also warded at the EWMSC, was attended to by doctors yesterday afternoon. She said she was also recuperating at a satisfactory rate. Asked if Heeralal was aware that his younger daughter died in the  blaze, Rheisa replied: “Yes, we all knew at that point. Daddy is very saddened and in a state.”

According to a police report, at about 5 am on Tuesday, Rheia, a 24-year-old school teacher, woke up from sleep to the smell of smoke and alerted both her parents. Heeralal attempted to extinguish the flames without success. Her mother, Nardaroon, told the T&T Guardian Rheia later became trapped in the kitchen area and Heeralal, 60, had to give up an attempt to rescue her due to the severity of the flames.

Fire officials said yesterday investigations were ongoing and they were still yet to determine the origin of the fire.

Cocaine and marijuana seizures by police have more than doubled over the past year. In a press release issued yesterday, the T&T Police Service (TTPS) Public Affairs Unit stated that drug seizures surpassed the total seizures for the whole of last year through intensive anti-crime exercises held between January and July 2015. 

There has been a 131 per cent increase in cocaine seizures with 193 kilogrammes being recovered as compared to 83 kilogrammes recorded for the same period last year. Marijuana seizures increased more significantly than did cocaine as anti-drug operations netted 1,239 kilogrammes as compared to 471 kilogrammes seized last year—an 163 per cent increase. 

“For the entire 2014, 148 kilos of cocaine were seized with a street value of $5.3 million and 1,185 kilos of marijuana with a value of $13 million,” the release said. 

In addition to increased drug seizures the unit also noted that the TTPS was intensifying its marijuana eradication exercises with 25 fields around T&T being raided and destroyed for the year so far as compared to the 20 that were targeted for the whole of last year. Of all nine policing divisions acrosss T&T, the Northern Division, in which the Piarco International Airport is located, led the way with cocaine seizures accounting for 61 kilogrammes of the overall total. 

It was followed by the South Western and Tobago Divisions where police seized 47 kilogrammes and 26 kilogrammes, respectively. In terms of marijuana seizures, the Western Division led with 282 kilogrammes removed from the hands of drug dealers, followed by the South Western Division at 268 kilogrammes and the Southern Division with 236 kilogrammes.

“The vision of the TTPS is to ensure that every place in T&T is safe and this will be achieved through various policing strategies that include but [are] not limited to an increase in police visibility on the roads and in communities, greater response times to reports of crimes being committed, the removal of illegal guns from off the streets and through the targeting of drug dealers,” the release said. 

Two minors were remanded into prison custody yesterday after they appeared in court charged with the unlawful killing of an 11-year-old boy who was shot dead while they were playing with a loaded shotgun. The court appearance of the brothers—ages 13 and 11—took place around the same time of the funeral service of 11-year-old Ruben Reid who was shot dead.

Members of the media were not allowed into the courtroom when the brothers appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court charged with manslaughter and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. They were remanded to the Youth Training Centre, Arouca, until their re-appearance tomorrow when the magistrate will determine if bail would be granted.

Spectators were also blocked from entering the court and only their counsel and immediate family members were allowed to enter. The two boys arrived separately at the court in an unmarked Toyota Corolla and an unmarked Nissan X-Trail around 2 pm. Their upper bodies were concealed with a grey jacket by police officers who escorted them into the court building.

The boys were represented by attorneys Saeed Trotter and Russel Warner. Reid was killed in the hills of Upper Richplain, Diego Martin, last week Thursday. He was shot in the face with a shotgun. The two brothers had been in police custody since the incident occurred. Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard advised police to charge them on Tuesday.

Cpl Courtney Phillips of the Homicide Bureau laid the charges. A man, who is said to be the owner of the shotgun, and is reported to be a relative of the children, remains warded at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. He is under police guard at the hospital. Police said the 48-year-old suspect had “ulcers” and was taken to the hospital for medical treatment. He is expected to be charged with possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition.

After forgiving the children who shot and killed his son during horseplay with a loaded gun, Phillip Thomas yesterday told a packed church at the child’s funeral he could not find it in him to forgive the parents of the children. Speaking during the funeral service at the Church of Christ, Brunton Road, Diego Martin, Thomas said the death of his 11-year-old son, Ruben Reid, was a “great sacrifice” and he could not contain himself. 

“It was tragic, it was senseless and it was stupid and I really can’t find the place to forgive the parents of those children...both parents. “I forgive the boys who use the weapon because them and all don’t know...the people who really give the children and them access to pick up a firearm. I find it is not a good thing to have in society,” Thomas said, adding that an example like that to a child at an early age was a testament to decay in society. 

Reid, a Standard Five pupil of Diego Martin Primary School, died after he was shot in the face by a shotgun after he went with a 13-year-old friend to the forested area where the 13-year-old’s brothers—11 and six—were tending to their father’s crops of corn, peas and plantain off the hills of Richplain, Diego Martin. 

Police said around 11.30 am on August 6, the 13-year-old allegedly loaded the shotgun. Moments later his 11-year-old brother is alleged to have fired once, hitting Reid in the face. He died from a single gunshot wound to the face. The father of eight said his first five children grew up in Laventille which has been plagued with criminal activity and none of his children had been victim of crime or criminality. 

He told the mourners when he heard his son was shot he thought he would have survived after seeing the ambulance. That hope was dashed after he saw a hearse for Armstrong Funeral Home arrive on the scene. Other mourners who attended praised the parents of Reid and called on parents and guardians to do better in raising their children and called on children to be obedient to their parents.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says Jack Warner’s decision to contest the Chaguanas East constituency will not affect her party’s decision about a candidate or have an outcome on the United National Congress’ (UNC) victory. Persad-Bissessar spoke to the media during her party’s screening at the Paraiso Building in Claxton Bay yesterday.

“Not at all. Chaguanas is a seat that I see clearly the UNC can win,” she said. Warner, the political leader of the Independent Liberal Party, and the outgoing MP for Chaguanas West, announced on Tuesday his candidacy for the Chaguanas East seat, currently held by the UNC’s Stephen Cadiz.

“It is a seat that we had two sessions of screening for candidates for. I completed the second batch sometime this morning (on Wednesday).”

“I see a clear victory for us, no matter who is there.”

She said she would be meeting with the various parties in the People’s Partnership today to identify the best candidates.

“Tomorrow (today) I will meet with leaders of the partnership for final negotiations, so by Friday we shall be well in place for the COP (Congress of the People) and all partners to have identified their candidates and then Sunday at the Ato Boldon Stadium we will name all 41.” She said the UNC executive would also meet on Friday as she planned to address candidates and nominees ahead of Sunday’s announcement. 

“My executive will meet on 4.30 pm on Friday and at 6.30 we have invited all the candidates and executives, activists and all nominees, as I will make the final address for candidates for the UNC on Friday. The COP will have their own timing when they do theirs.” 

Speaking on the results of various polls showing the partnership out in front in the election race, Persad-Bissessar said, “A  poll is a snapshot in time, the real poll is on September 7. It is interesting that we have not named all our candidates and the polling is saying we are neck and neck or up out front? Can you imagine when we announce all our candidates?” She said the People’s National Movement’s candidates had failed to excite voters. 

“They have had their candidates out there for eight months and they have failed to excite the voters who are being polled, so voters are saying we are not happy with your candidates and we are not going to vote for them.” She said it was the UNC’s practice to announce candidates the day before Nomination Day, August 17.

“That is what I did in 2010. I screened for two weeks straight and then announced candidates.” She also announced the opening of the Debe Interchange on Saturday, saying it was completed and ready for use.

A contract worth between $30 and $35 million has been awarded to Infotech Caribbean Ltd through sole selective tendering but there is no underhandedness in the matter, says Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan. Infotech is a leading Port-of-Spain-based IT solutions and services provider in the Caribbean, in existence for 36 years.

Its CEO is Lorcan Camps, a Guardian Media Ltd board member. Khan was responding to questions from the T&T Guardian about claims from Diego Martin West independent candidate Phillip Alexander that Infotech benefited from preferential treatment. 

In a media release shortly after the launch of the National Health Card at Gaston Court, Chaguanas, yesterday, Alexander said, “I would like to suggest to the Health Minister he gives details as to how the contract for this system was awarded. “I am being told the company was given the contract through a sole select model benefiting from preferential treatment and inside information without the project being put out for tender.

“The company named as beneficiary is Infotech. 

“The name Lorcan Camps has been mentioned as someone with whom the minister is acquainted,” Alexander stated.

“As this is such an important idea (the health card) it would be a shame for it to begin its life mired in rumours of corruption and underhanded dealing.”

Contacted for a response, Khan said Infotech was given the award through sole selective tendering because Infotech was the same company that did the health card for the diabetics system in 2007. “I just used them. But it was not a case of just handing the contract to them.

“The contract was hammered out between the National Insurance Property Development Co (Nidpec) and Ministry of Health technocrats.”

Khan also dismissed as “rubbish” claims by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley that there was a link between the company assisting the UNC’s teleforum election campaign and the company behind the National Health Card. He said Alexander’s was a case of sour grapes because he did not get contracts to fund his campaign.

Alexander said in a newspaper article he had funding challenges.

Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said at the launch of the National Health Card yesterday there were already 33,000 people registered for it. He said it was going to become compulsory for all citizens to have the card and it would take about eight months to complete their registration. People from other countries who have been living in T&T for decades but have not been regularised will not get the card until they get a nationality certificate.

The card, which will contain citizens’ medical and personal data, will allow them free medication for certain diseases at listed pharmacies across T&T. Khan said the card would increase efficiency, reduce waste and loss of medical drugs and allow citizens to access medical treatment anywhere in an emergency.

Data from the card will be monitored by a new C-40 medical drugs centre. The centre will be able to track how medical supplies are being distributed. Khan said the card was to be followed by a biometric card. He dismissed the suggestion that the launch of the card was an election ploy.

He said the idea was concretised four years ago after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar expressed her desire to have a proper record of medical services. Chief Medical Officer Colin Furlonge said $800 million was spent annually on medical supplies, which is one-fifth of the budgetary allocation to the Health Ministry.

33,000 registered

Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said at the launch of the National Health Card yesterday there were already 33,000 people registered for it. He said it was going to become compulsory for all citizens to have the card and it would take about eight months to complete their registration. People from other countries who have been living in T&T for decades but have not been regularised will not get the card until they get a nationality certificate.

The card, which will contain citizens’ medical and personal data, will allow them free medication for certain diseases at listed pharmacies across T&T. Khan said the card was to be followed by a biometric card. He dismissed the suggestion that the launch of the card was an election ploy.

He said the idea was concretised four years ago after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar expressed her desire to have a proper record of medical services.

Political leader of the Congress of the People (COP) Prakash Ramadhar scoffed at suggestions that the party’s principal coalition partner, the United National Congress (UNC), was encroaching on the COP’s independence. This is despite the COP choosing a member of the UNC, Hamlyn Jailal, as its candidate for the marginal seat of Tunapuna.

Ramadhar spoke to reporters on Tuesday night, in an interview following the launch of the campaign for the St Augustine seat, which Ramadhar was chosen to contest. Jailal is the chairman of the National Insurance Property Development Company (Nipdec) and the chairman of the UNC Tunapuna constituency.

“Mr Jailal is no stranger to the COP,” Ramadhar said.

“He ran our campaign in 2010 in Tunapuna and in 2013 for local government elections. He is well known in the constituency and has worked very hard for over 20 years.” Ramadhar said the COP had to decide who had the best opportunity for success, adding he was not surprised at the criticism.

“There will always be people who will have one view or another view and therefore it is not surprising but we believe he will be the best candidate to win in Tunapuna.” He said the move was not unprecedented, as the COP had chosen members from other parties as candidates in the past.

“We have done it in the past. We took members of  the NJAC (National Joint Action Committee) in 2010 and they ran as COP so nothing is serious about that.”

Asked if there were no suitable COP members for the seat, Ramadhar said Jailal was the best choice. “We had good people but we cannot slip in Tunapuna and therefore the person who has that long history, we needed.

“You can say a person is UNC or COP but the qualities of that person, the commitment, dedication, decency is what we looked for.”

Ramadhar was unsure, though, as to whether Jailal was screened by a screening committee of the COP. Asked whether Jailal had been, Ramadhar said he would check. “As far as I am concerned, I met with him along with others and deemed him an appropriate candidate and in any event I asked for him to be put before the proper screening committee.”

He denied that the decision to select Jailal came from the UNC. “Mr Jailal is not the UNC candidate. He is the COP candidate. He has worked with us. It was our decision.”

On Sunday, the People’s Partnership will announce its 41 candidates, after leaders from the coalition partners complete negotiations on which seats they would contest. Tuesday night’s launch saw approximately 200 people from both the COP and the UNC brave rainy weather to listen to several speakers talk about the partnership’s accomplishments over the past five years.

Education Minister Tim Gopeesingh, Planning Minister Bhoe Tewarie, Arts Minister Lincoln Douglas and National Diversity Minister Rodger Samuel also encouraged the audience to band together to convince constituents to vote to give the partnership another term.

Local Government Minister Marlene Coudray says Government will bring new legislation that will give more autonomy to regional corporations should the People’s Partnership return to government.

Rejecting the PNM’s plan to scrap the ministry altogether and have the Finance Ministry absorb some of its function, she assured her party was committed to local government, saying it tends to the direct needs of citizens.

Speaking at the opening of the Poonah Recreation Ground pavilion yesterday, she said even though the PNM proposes to develop a Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of Local Government was already helping rural communities through the upliftment of recreational grounds, roads, drainage and disaster relief.

She added: “My first act as Minister of Local Government was to table the document on the modernisation and decentralisation of local government bodies and the new, which is to be put on the agenda. Yes, we will give them more authority and more responsibility. “We have already started to give them more funding and I have already indicated that under this government, regional corporations has never had so much funding before but we need to make them more accountable in terms of some of our plans. 

“All the corporations have municipal plans and this is what your public sector investment programme is about, to provide funding in accordance with established plans and guidelines and you find people using the money to do whatever they want without oversight.” She added: “Our system proposes that there will be more autonomy but you cannot divorce autonomy from accountability, from responsibility, therefore we are saying, yes, we will give them more. 

“They need to have more authority and more autonomy and as minister I have been sitting back and allowing them to do their job. “When they have issues and problems, this is what the ministry is here for, to sort out those issues and problems. “We do not interfere in their day-to-day activities, except in those cases where we see abuse of authority. It happens in some corporation,”

Coudray said if the ministry was removed, it would create a divide between local government bodies and central government and hinder to local government representatives ability of deal with the everyday needs of the people. She said while she had not seen the PNM’s plan on paper, it suggested that it believed that the ministry was only involved in disbursing money. She said it was also about ensuring accountability of public funds. 

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The pavilion at the Poonah Recreation Ground was built at a cost of $1.5 million by Baksh Construction Services. The project began in March 2013 and was finished in June 2014 and can hold 400 spectators. Coudray said it would also be used as a home work centre and plans were afoot to have a jogging track and children’s play park built on the ground.

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley says he is confident that the police will investigate threats to his life. Rowley said so in a brief comment to reporters following a meeting of the PNM in Sangre Grande on Tuesday night. Police have been investigating reports of a plot to kill him. He said he was not prepared to say much more on the matter.

Earlier, in his address, he was critical of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for being in love with office. He said Persad-Bissessar even insisted that she be addressed as Prime Minister during a Leaders Debate being organised by the T&T Debates Commission. “Imagine she is going to a debate and will write the commission and (say) that she must be called ‘Madame Prime Minister’ in the debate,” he added.

Rowley also said the PP Government had already taken measures to ensure land and building taxes would be reintroduced following next month’s election. He said that would happen regardless of which party won the September 7 polls. 

He added, “In case you don’t know they have fixed the land and building tax to come in force after election. It is already in place. It was put in place two years ago when they started with business properties and then agricultural properties and the last one to come, they make sure they put that after the election.”

Rowley added, “So win, lose or draw, after the election you would begin to pay the land and building taxes.” Rowley also said he was not prepared to assist the commission of enquiry into the controversial Las Alturas Housing Project. The commission is investigating the reasons why two apartment buildings collapsed after construction. Rowley said he could not assist the commission and would not be attending. He said if he was summoned the commission would have to pay his legal fees.

He insisted that he was not the minister of Housing when the project was done. He admitted that he did not have a Rowley Plan but said the PNM had a plan to advance the country. He said he was the leader of the PNM and it “has all the plans that T&T wants for its good order and governance.”

He said if the PNM was to form the next Government there would be significant local government reforms to give it “breadth of authority and a body of resources to serve you in a way like never before.” He said funds would be provided to local government corporations from the finance minister and there would be no local government minister.

He further criticised the Government, saying it had taken Caribbean Airlines from a position where it had money in the bank to one where it was now losing millions. He was referring to reports that the airline was discontinuing its London route. He said the former PNM Government fixed the airline but the PP Government had now broken it and recreated the problem.

Mohini Ganase, 16, said her mother Sherry-Ann Seecharan supported her up until the last few days of her life, for which, she is ever so grateful.

On July 29, 2015 Ganase’s life completely changed when she was forced to save her mother’s life by pulling the trigger of her stepfather’s licensed gun killing him. 

Her stepfather, Robert Seecharan, was a prisons officer and on a family outing two weeks ago, he began beating her mother and threatening to kill her with his gun. That’s when Ganase said she intervened and was able to take away the gun and shot him in self-defence.

On Wednesday, Sherry-Ann committed suicide by drinking a poisonous liquid while at her sister’s home at Seebalack Trace, Barrackpore. “We (referring to herself and her three siblings), were always so very close to our stepdad but closer to our mother. We all are hurting but nobody won’t know that, nobody won’t know how we feel inside and what we are going through,” Ganase said.

“It was very hard for me since the incident. My mother lost everything. Even before she died she tried making quarrels with me. I believe she was trying to push me away but I never allowed that. I stuck with her and looked out for her,” she said during an interview yesterday at Barrackpore. “At nights when I am trying to sleep I would hear my mother getting up and going downstairs and I would follow her just to make sure that she was ok. My mother was frustrated, she was always sad,” Ganase said.

Over two years ago, Ganase herself had a near-death experience after contracting a serious bout of food poisoning.

She was forced to drop out of school at the end of Form Two, aged 14.

What’s next for her, Ganase replied: “I am going to see my little brother, Brandon, go off to secondary school. God alone knows what will happen after.”

Yesterday, a team of police officers and social workers were at Ganase’s aunt’s house, Elizabeth, giving counselling to Ganase, her elder brother, Krishna, 19; her elder sister, Oma, 18 and her younger brother, Brandon, 12.“The counselling session went well but I don’t feel like I need it because I am dealing with it in my own way. I get tired and kind of irritated with people talking to me over and over but the session passed good,” Ganase said.

Sherry-Ann’s mother, Samdaye Rangoo, 63, said she also has many questions: “I questioning myself, saying what have I done wrong to deserve all this sadness and misery.” Rangoo in the past months have experienced several deaths in her family, including the death of her nephew, who was very ill; her son-in-law, Cyril Joseph (Elizabeth’s husband), who was fatally shot with a trap gun while in his garden on July 13, and now, Sherry-Ann’s suicide.

“If there was quick action and counselling was given to my daughter and granddaughter none of this would have happened. I think the entire family needs counselling now because this is very hard,” Rangoo said.

On August 6, on the day of her 36th birthday, Sherry-Ann was paid a special visit by a pastor, who spoke to her and prayed for her.

Defence Force reserves and Special Reserve Police officers are being called out and various security exercises are being implemented for the election campaign period which is due to intensify from this weekend’s political party rallies.

National Security Minster Carl Alfonso confirmed the situation at yesterday’s post-Cabinet media conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.

He said about 100 soldiers would be called out and the Police Commissioner would determine how many police officers also would be called out. He said the measure was being done to ensure high law enforcement visibility and also to ensure the public felt comfortable and secure in the heightened campaign period.

Alfonso appealed to the public to tolerate and co-operate with security forces in upcoming days in terms of roadblocks and searches. 

He said it would not be a situation like the “Day of Total Policing” on March 23 but there would be regular and frequent checks and roadblocks.

”It is not meant to annoy people. The security forces will only be doing their job and it’s meant to make people feel secure,” he added.

He also revealed that the armoured personnel carriers which Government had ordered earlier in the year should arrive later this month. He said a team had gone to Israel to examine models. However, he said, T&T required right-hand drive vehicles not left-hand ones.

His statement followed claims by the Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) of an alleged death threat against the PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley. Police are investigating the report of $15 million hit on Rowley’s life. 

Rowley has alleged “the government” was behind that but the Prime Minister who ordered additional security for Rowley, has condemned Rowley’s claim and asked police to probe the report.

Alfonso said investigations were still ongoing into the alleged threat against Rowley. However, he said he was concerned about Rowley’s safety as he was concerned about the safety of everyone.

He said he had received some flack for initially saying he was unaware of the alleged threat but said he had heard about it unofficially like others and was later informed officially.

Alfonso added a report had been handed in by DCP Glen Hackett on the recent leak of the special branch memo two weeks ago.

Alfonso also said efforts were being completed to make the million dollar payment to the family of murdered police constable Sherman Maynard who was killed while on duty outside the Port-of-Spain prison during the July 24 jailbreak by three men.

Alfonso said administrative processes were being completed and “all the Ts are being crossed and Is being dotted to facilitate the payment.”