Government will be pursuing the Anti-Gang bill again.
And this time Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley hopes Government and the Opposition can work out the areas of concern the Opposition has on the bill. Last year, the T&T Police Service had asked the Government to bring the bill to Parliament to aid them in getting murders and gang activity under control. However, the proposed bill failed last December due to lack of Opposition support. Proposals cannot be returned until six months after a bill’s failure.
Speaking at a media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre yesterday, Rowley said from reports, all areas of criminal activity seem to be on the decline save murders. He said this is beyond all efforts to turn it around.
He said last year security forces collected 1,000 firearms and that still didn’t help the situation. But he said efforts must now be redoubled, noting a lot of crime involves revenge killings, protection of turf and similar issues.
Saying the Anti-Gang law was needed, he said Government has written the Opposition and the latter has indicated its concerns on the bill. He expects meetings would be held in the “not too distant future” so these can be worked out.
On an unrelated matter, the PM also hinted that the return to work by Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie will depend on his condition.Cuffie suffered a stroke last September and has been in rehabilitation in the US since then. Rowley said his exercise abroad was successful and he was expected back in the “not too distant future,” adding Cuffie had made considerable progress.
Rowley confirmed the state is bearing part of the cost of Cuffie’s medical bill. But he said there is a limit on the cost. While he couldn’t give the cost, he added, “It wasn’t insubstantial.”
Rowley also said he may have to “assist” the situation according to how strenuous Cuffie’s job is. He reiterated he’d recently said he’d divest Cuffie’s portfolio - which he currently holds - and that was still on the cards and would be discussed next week. Rowley will be at a public meeting in Cuffie’s constituency then.
Rowley said yesterday’s retreat focused on reports on the economy, legislative agenda and security. Discussions involved fine-tuning how Government moves ahead and the focus on managing expectations and expenditure, monitoring debt and maintaining jobs towards the goal of a balanced budget later on.
He projected protracted Parliamentary sessions to deal with the legislative agenda. This includes legislation on Local Government reform, the T&T Revenue Authority and Tobago’s self- government. Discussions also fell on development plan projects, which includes the E-Tech park, aluminium, tourism and other projects.