In its thrust to make the Port of Port-of-Spain the trans-shipment hub of the Caribbean, the Port Authority of TT yesterday revealed that the port’s latest acquisition — the Gottwald Mobile Harbour Crane had arrived at the PoS docks.

The crane, which was purchased from Gottwald Port Technology of Germany at a cost of US$2.8 million, is expected to dramatically improve the port’s operating capacity, as it is able to operate at a speed of 30 containers per hour. PATT’s public relations manager, Betty Ann Gibbons, said this would “improve productivity and ships’ turnaround time.” The Gottwald is fully computerised and equipped with cameras and monitors enabling its operators to view inside the ship, while its flexibility allows it to service from Berth 4 to Berth 6 quite easily. Employees of the Port’s Crane Maintenance Department were recently accommodated by Gottwald Port Technology where they were trained in its maintenance. Operators were accommodated in Jamaica where they received training at Port Services Ltd. Gibbons said that German engineers are presently at the Port to commence assembling the crane, assisted by qualified and experienced Port employees.

STUDENTS of Siparia Senior Comprehensive School bowed their heads in mournful silence yesterday as they paid their respects to their schoolmates Nikela Rogers and Rafi Fermin, both of whom drowned over the weekend.

Vice-Principal Vernon Persad told Newsday the school population observed a minute’s silence for the drowned pupils during yesterday morning’s assembly. Rogers and Fermin drowned after midday on Saturday at Morne Diablo beach. Their bodies were discovered washed ashore some 12 hours later. Fermin, of Robert Village, Siparia, was spending the weekend with Rogers at her Morne Diablo home.

The girls, both 16, were form five students at Siparia Senior Comprehensive. “This is a very tragic event and we are all affected by it,” a sombre sounding Persad told Newsday yesterday. He added that while the school did not have a guidance counsellor, the drowned teens’ form teacher would speak and counsel the other students of that form. Meanwhile, autopsies were expected to be carried out on both bodies yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, Federation Park, St James.  Newsday was told that Rogers will be buried today at the Batchiya Village Cemetery, Penal, following a funeral service at the Morne Diablo Anglican Church starting at 2 pm. Fermin will be buried tomorrow.

EASTERN Division police said yesterday they may have to consult with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson concerning the circumstances in which a seven-month-old female foetus was buried in a backyard.

Police sources told Newsday that while there are provisions in the laws of Trinidad and Tobago for persons to be charged with “concealment of birth” and “procurement of miscarriage,” they have not yet received the “necessary evidence” that could lead them to arrest and charge anyone with these offences. Section 58 Chapter 11:08 of the Offences Against the Persons Act states that “if anyone is delivered of a child, every person who, by any secret disposition of the dead body of the child, whether the child died before, at, or after its birth, endeavours to conceal the birth is liable to imprisonment for two years.” Section 56 of the same Act states that “every woman being with child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious things, or unlawfully uses any instrument or other measures with like intent, is liable to imprisonment for four years.”

On Sunday evening, officers of the Eastern Division dug up a foetus from a three-foot hole behind a house on Oropouche Road, Valencia. Following the discovery, police detained a 45-year-old security guard from the same area. He was released late Sunday evening. A 39-year-old housewife remained warded at the Sangre Grande Hospital up to late evening. Police sources said she was haemorrhaging. Police sources told Newsday that an anonymous caller contacted the Valencia Police Station around 3.30 pm Sunday, saying that they had seen a man “bury something” at the back of a Valencia house. Residents also told the police that a woman was pregnant for several months then appeared not to be pregnant, but that there were no signs of a child. Officers under Insp Thomas and including PC Thomas of the Eastern Division visited the scene, dug up the foetus, which was viewed by District Medical Officer Dr Roxanne Tantoco. PC Phillip of the Valencia Criminal Investigations Department is investigating.

PHARMACISTS at the San Fernando General Hospital have issued a public statement, about the chronic drug shortage at the hospital’s dispensary, in which they have criticised Health Minister Colm Imbert.

In an unprecedented move, the 25 pharmacists stated that they felt they had a responsibility to inform the public of the situation at the dispensary where up to yesterday, scores of patients were turned away due to the lack of drugs to treat life-threatening illnesses such as high-blood pressure, cardio-vascular thrombosis (heart), diabetes, infection and epilepsy. The hospital was up to yesterday still without these drugs as well as Panadol liquid, the pharmacists stated. As to why the dispensary was short of over 17 critical drugs, the pharmacists explained: “The SFGH uses a maximum/minimum order level that determines the order level at any point in time. The system ensures that the drug level is never exhausted.

It takes a minimum of two weeks for orders to be processed and delivered. A back order system is in effect whereby if the drug is nil at the supplier, and there are outstanding orders, it will be supplied once they receive medication.” But the pharmacists’ statement went on to say: “However, we at the SFGH have noticed that this is never practiced, since we have to be continually re-ordering.” The statement alleged discrimination in the supply of drugs to the SFGH in which the same drugs requested by SFGH, are instead made available to the Private Pharmacy Programme, while the public hospitals and health centres are being deprived of the same drugs. The statement said that it was common for the SFGH to receive drugs with “very short expiry dates from NIPDEC.”

The pharmacists pointed out that only last month, a supply of Epilim used to treat epileptic children, was delivered to the hospital with an expiry date of June 30, 2003. “Also, Vitamin K administered to newborn babies, was sent to the SFGH on September 11, 2003 marked with an expiry date of September 1, 2003. The pharmacists want to know why these drugs were sitting at NIPDEC and not sent to the hospital where they were desperately needed. The pharmacists have also called for an investigation into the criterion in the distribution of drugs to hospitals, contending that SFGH serves more than half the population yet receives less drugs than the North-West Regional Health Authority.” They stated that there is need for daily communication between NIPDEC personnel and SFGH’s administration on the availability of drugs at the health institution. The pharmacists ended their letter by chiding Imbert for reportedly saying that SFGH had utilised 76 percent of its drug budget.

The University of the West Indies has presented its position paper entitled “The Caroni Transformation Process” to the Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Marine Resources, John Rahael.

The paper’s objective is to present a framework which may be used to develop the lands of Caroni (1975) Limited. It is a response to calls from members of the public who attended a seminar on “Caroni Lands: Sustainable Develop-ment” at the St Augustine Campus on April 27. Members called on the university to declare a position on the Caroni Transformation Process. The university in turn solicited contributions from over 50 persons, both from the campus and the wider public. The main idea of the position paper is that the Caroni lands — comprising in all, acreage greater than the land mass of Tobago — should be used in the national interest to support and secure the institutional, human and ecological resources of TT.  To this end, the Paper outlines a number of principles, guidelines and recommendations which are geared at guiding the transformation process on the Caroni lands. It outlines the following recommendations:
1. That the Government move immediately to prepare and publish a comprehensive plan detailing how it intends to restructure Caroni (1975) Ltd.
2. That the Government take urgent steps to convene a national consultation on the Caroni resources and on the published plan.
3. That, in respect of the use of Caroni lands, any departure from the National Physical Development plan — the substantive legal document framed to govern land use in TT — must be done through the legally stipulated process, which includes bringing amendments to this plan before Parliament.
4. That all conditions for the lease and tenure of the Caroni lands be detailed to the public in a published document to meet the requirements of transparency.
5. That the Government immediately establish a mechanism for consultation and information gathering with the Caroni workers in order to determine their skills, experience, intentions, dispositions so that a detailed and authentic skills bank will be created and that their determinations are taken into account in the transformation processes so that they may have the choices of how they may be integrated in future planned enterprises.
6. That the State establish an independent Screening Committee to stringently screen potential investors who seek Caroni lands as their location of business.
7. That the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources establish an independent Authority charged with the implementation of plans for agriculture and agriculture-related industries.
8. That the Government establish a comprehensive system of water control on the Caroni lands, in order to facilitate irrigation, as an essential pre-condition for the establishment of agricultural enterprise on the Caroni lands.
9. That the Government establish a lease income funding enterprise system and embark upon a comprehensive joint funding venture with companies in the heavy industrial sector, in order to fund national platforms for development, such as the ones proposed by the position paper such as the botanical plan, a food park plan and a buffalo reconstruction plan among others.