Caroni Land Bill goes to Senate

THE Caroni (1975) Limited and Orange Grove National Company Ltd (Divestment and Business Development) (No 2) Bill 2004 will be the first order of business on the parliamentary agenda following the long Easter weekend. The Bill, which provides for the vesting of  Caroni’s assets, will be presented by Minister in the Ministry of Finance Christine Sahadeo when the Senate sits at 1.30 pm on April 5. When this legislation was presented in the House of Representatives on September 10, 2004, it sparked a heated debate with the Opposition UNC claiming there was a plan to give Caroni lands to PNM supporters.

The Bill was eventually passed in the Lower House on January 24. There will be no parliamentary sittings this week, which means that presentation of the final report on last year’s tearoom incident involving  Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma in the Lower House will be delayed by at least another week. Newsday has been reliably informed yesterday that the Privileges Committee of the House of Representatives has completed the report, which will be presented in the Lower House after Easter.