Crime week in the House

On November 9, a motion requesting the House to take note of Government’s efforts to combat crime will be filed in the Lower House by Trade and Industry Minister, Ken Valley, and subsequently piloted by Minister of National Security, Senator Martin Joseph.

All PNM members are expected to make contributions.

On November 11, which has been designated Private Members’ Day, a motion asking the House to call on Government to fulfil its mandate to provide national security for all law-abiding citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, by giving meaningful consideration to the various proposals placed in the public domain by the Keith Noel 136 Committee and other concerned groups to address the scourge of crime, will be piloted by Member for Pointe-a-Pierre, Gillian Lucky.

According to the motion, serious criminal activities in this country has escalated out of control. It also refers to that part of President’s George Maxwell Richards’ speech at the ceremonial opening of this session, in which he (President Richards) stated that "this is a time when constituents must be able to call in the promissory notes that were handed out at election time, and deferrals will not do."

Lucky yesterday told Newsday that she disproved of the motion that will be moved by Govern-ment, describing it as a public relations exercise.

She said at the last sitting of Parliament, Government had given a commitment that the next sitting would be designated Private Members’ Day, since there was no sitting on the day usually assigned to private members — the last Friday of the month.

It was Govern-ment’s aim to pre-empt her motion, she said, because its alleged efforts were not working and had nothing to do with resolving the crime problem.