Bahadur’s mother Sharon Narine said that after writing the SE A examination last week Thursday, she gave her daughter permission to spend time with relatives in Chaguanas.

The worried mother said her daughter left the family home shortly after 4 pm with another relative. “I did not want her to travel alone so her elder cousin went with her.

“The arrangement was that my daughter was to return home on Monday. She was allowed to spend two days by family in Chaguanas,” Narine said. The mother of 15, said that later on Friday night she telephoned her daughter’s aunt to see if Jilliana had arrived safely, but was informed that her daughter and the cousin never showed up.

“I could not believe what I hearing. My little girl is out there.

I do not know what to think…I am afraid for her. I have not heard from the cousin who was supposed to be with her,” Narine said. She said that her daughter was not the type to run away from home.

“She is not that type of girl, she was studying hard at school to write the SE A,” she said.

Narine said she is praying her daughter is safe. “There is no sign of her cousin who went with her as well. My daughter is a primary school child and cannot fend for herself. Please, if someone has her just send her home and don’t harm her…I am begging you. She is just a little girl,” the weeping woman cried.

A Missing’s Person report was made to the St Margaret’s Police Station. In a media release Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) said the teenager is of mixed descent, five feet six inches tall, brown in complexion and has brown shoulder length hair.

The release said she was last seen wearing a pink dress and a pair of slippers. Anyone with information on the teen’s whereabouts is asked to call 800-TIPS or any police station

A woman must play three parts in her life: A good daughter, a good wife and a good mother.

These specific duties are expected of her. Only education can help her to discharge them satisfactorily.

Many men spend their evenings at clubs and societies but a gentleman with an educated wife will not feel the need of societies and club. He can share his thoughts with her, seek her advice and spend his leisure hours in her company.

An educated wife will be a good friend, a clever nurse and a useful adviser to her husband. She will be a true helpmate and can retain her husband’s affection and regard.

Education will enable women to make parents, husbands and children truly happy. Therefore, it is paramount that women be educated.

AHAMAD KHAYYAM Curepe

However, on entering the air-conditioned venue I could not help but smell and see that the place was partially filled with smoke from the grill at the back. Obviously the extractor fans were not working or something else was the cause.

I was tempted to leave as the situation seemed unhealthy, but wanting my burger I placed my order and stepped outside to avoid inhaling the unpleasant smoke.

To my amazement at least 15 people remained inside. They seemed not to be bothered by the smoke.

Nobody appeared to be protesting or complaining like it was the norm. I could only think to myself, “Boy, Trinis could really take a lot yes.” When my burger was ready 20 minutes later (yes, it took 20 minutes), on collecting I was asked if I wanted ketchup. I said yes, only to be given a plastic pack that holds no more than a teaspoon of ketchup. Thank goodness I had ketchup at home, and home is where I went to eat my burger.

Trini people, take a bow for your tolerance but maybe a lot of the inefficiencies in this country is as a result of us taking too much and not complaining and standing up for our rights. This goes for everything. Think about it. Pick sense out of this.

W DOPSON Woodbrook, PoS

He made the point while addressing a luncheon hosted by the Energy Chamber at Cara Suites Hotel and Conference Centre, Claxton Bay on Wednesday. Harewood’s address was titled, “Update on Petrotrin in the context of the ‘lower for longer’ price environment.” “The challenge we face is in a normal operation, people will be investing in assets that will bring a rate of return based on increased oil production or de-bottlenecking.

But we are in a situation where our ageing infrastructure is so acute have to put aside money just to deal with that to restore business,” he said.

“Do we abdicate responsibility to reduce the cost? We cannot! We can still try to reduce operating cost and we have identified and listed things that are of concern to us with respect to asset integrity.

The question is how we fund the changes required. It is a huge sum. Some of the numbers they have tossed up for tankers and pipes, if you were to accumulate that over the next four to five years, you are talking in the order of $16 billion,” he said. Harewood said seven tanks, one of which has been the source of a recent oil spill, have been identified as being in need of urgent repair and the company was working on two other tanks when the oil spill occurred.

“That tank was part of the seven we are doing, and this is the challenge we face and that is while we are dealing with one thing, something else is going to bite us,” he said.

Harewood said that refinery margins are an integral part of the company’s success but this is dependent on increased local crude oil production.

“If you can keep the cost of the raw material down, and maximize the cost of the finished product, then you going to make money so the refinery margins are extremely important and how do we keep the cost of the input material down, well we need to increase our local crude production, because whatever is the lifting cost to bring that crude to the refinery, that represents the cost of production,” he said, adding, “when you are buying crude, you are exposed to market forces.” “For Petrotrin to succeed we need to increase our local crude production,” he said noting that local crude production had risen from 41,000 barrels per day in December 2016 to 46,000 barrels per day in April 2017.

And regarding the recent oil spill which has reportedly reached the North-eastern coast of Venezuela, Harewood said the company’s aging infrastructure was a problem which would require a multi-billion dollar investment.

“I can’t give the cost for the recent incident, we are doing investigations into that but the issues are being dealt with. It is a challenge.

We have to reduce our operational expenses and how we treat with the question of improving the asset integrity at Petrotrin,” Harewood said.

Gloria Chin, 27, of Hackette Extension Road, Navet Village, San Fernando, and Kamal Khan, 26, of Solidad Road, Claxton Bay, were arrested on Friday following investigations into the murder of Alleyne, who is the nephew of Assistant Commissioner of Crime Carlton Alleyne.

The burnt body of Alleyne, 27, was discovered on June 14, 2014, at the dump along Tortuga Road, Foress Park, Claxton Bay.

He went missing from his home at Southern Main Road, Pointe-a- Pierre on June 7, 2014.

Alleyne’s remains were discovered on June 14, 2014, but relatives identified him on June 23 of that year by means of dental records, hair texture and bone fragments from the spine. Alleyne suffered from scoliosis.

Detectives from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region 111 investigated the murder and on Friday last arrested Chin and Khan. Advice was sought from Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Joan Honore-Paul. Yesterday, the two were handcuffed and escorted to the magistrates’ court where they appeared before Magistrate Indira Misir-Gosine, who read the charge to both.

The charge alleged that between June 7, 2014 and June 11, 2014, they murdered Alleyne, at Foress Park, Claxton Bay, Tortuga.

The magistrate informed both accused that the charge was laid indictably and that they were not called upon to plead. Woman Corporal of Police Johnson laid the charge.

Attorneys Gobin Harripersad Khan and Nazima Ali Knox represented Khan and Chin respectively and requested that upon the assigning of a State attorney, disclosures of any statements or exhibits should be made by the next hearing of the matter. The magistrate postponed the case to June 8 and remanded Chin and Khan into custody.

There can be only one reason for government: to make life better for the people.

Full stop. There can be no other reason.

So it was with great annoyance that I suffered a huge traffic jam in Port-of-Spain on my way to work Tuesday morning because some “bright spark” had put police to cordon off lower Richmond Street at the height of rush hour because “the Prime Minister was coming (at 11.30 am) to open the new government offices there.” Now, tell me, how did blocking off lower Richmond Street from about 8 am until the ceremony finished at about 12.30 pm make my life better? How was the security for the Prime Minister improved by blocking off the street some three to four hours before he was due to arrive? As it was, an officer in a police car way behind mine decided to muscle his way through the traffic by turning on his siren after he had been stuck in the same jam as the rest of us and obviously decided he wasn’t going to wait.

Waiting, after all, is just for the peasants.

I am absolutely fed up. The politicians on both sides don’t seem to care one jot about the people. All they seem to care about is themselves. So long as they are all right why should they care about the ordinary citizen? We don’t have a functioning democracy. What we have are a bunch of neo-colonialists who have learned the language and mannerisms of our former colonial masters and who continue to impose colonial values and systems upon us, the ordinary citizens.

It was wrong yesterday and it remains wrong today.

ROBIN MONTANO via email

Finance Minister Colm Imbert took us through the realities of the times as he dealt with everything from fiscal matters to a legislative agenda, covering such items as a revenue authority, insurance bill, procurement legislation, curbs on the gambling industry, the country’s debt profile, public expenditure review, changes to the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, FATCA, and so much more. It is the type of presentation that facilitates greater understanding of our state of affairs and calms fears that usually arise through lack of information, especially in difficult times.

For instance, the minister pointed to increased oil production in 2016 from its lowest level in 50 years at 66,000 to almost 76,000 barrels a day. He also noted that gas production has picked up in the first six months of fiscal 2017.

Although the oil price is hovering around US$47 a barrel, oil prices have averaged US$50.45 a barrel for the first six months of the fiscal year. Additionally, over the last six months, Henry Hub natural gas spot price has reached as high as US$3.75 per MMBtu, last December, averaging well over US$3. What this means is that we have collected $3.6 billion in taxes from the energy sector so far for 2017, compared with the original budget projection of $2.6 billion, an increase of $1 billion.

The Government spent $23.5 billion, or $3.8 billion less than projected.

The increased revenues and less expenditure still did not prevent an interim deficit of approximately $5.40 billion, compared with a budget projection of $3.85 billion. This was due to temporary shortfalls in capital revenues and lower than projected tax collections in respect of goods and services, mainly VAT and transfers of State enterprise profits.

The minister said we had to borrow a $1 billion, five-year, 3.8 percent fixed-rate bond issued on December 15, 2016; a $1.0 billion, eightyear, 4.10 percent fixed-rate bond, issued on February 14, and a $1.5 billion, short-term (six-month), 1.70 percent fixed-rate bond, issued on March 16, all for budgetary support.

This saw our debt-to-GDP ratio move from 60.1 percent to 61.1 percent between October 2016 and last March. The lower spending has seen core inflation subdued. Food inflation has trended downwards, from a high of 18.2 percent in October 2014 to 7.7 percent in January.

The expansion of the VAT base, the gradual seven percent depreciation of the currency over the last year, increases in fuel prices, and other tax adjustments have resulted in lowering aggregate demand and thus dampening price increases.

Our net international reserves moved from US$10.4 billion in May 2014 to US$9.1 billion in April, remaining at 10 months import cover.

We should all note that the minister confirmed that the Central Bank has been asked to give priority to manufacturing and trade whenever it intervenes in the disbursement of foreign exchange to the commercial banks. We can expect to bear the full price of fuel by 2018 when subsidies will be removed.

The Government is placing emphasis on strengthening revenue collection instead of imposing new taxes or tariff adjustments and to address leakage and avoidance. The focus on tax evasion and avoidance is laudable since this will go a long way in boosting confidence in the Government’s efforts and will help remove the feeling that some “smartmen” are getting away while the majority carries the tax burden.

Property tax is being operationalised with the Ministry of Finance in the final stages of recruiting 248 members of staff for the Valuation Division. Finally, we see a mission from the World Bank is expected to visit the country next month, to commence the public expenditure review programme. Imbert was not a harbinger of doom and gloom on Wednesday, but with more information provided grounds for hope in this uncertain environment.

In Awong’s contribution to the debate on Wednesday, he said between 2003 when he entered local government and 2010, 36 communities in his region were dependent on truck-borne water. He said within that period, despite the existence of land and building taxes, only one pavilion and no play parks were built, forcing him to take his children to Chaguanas for them to enjoy the privilege of a play park.

This changed between 2010 and 2015, he said, when 23 pavilions and 14 play parks were built, and the number of areas dependent on truckborne water reduced from 36 to 13. All this was done while the Property Tax and Valuation of Land Acts 2009 were suspended by the PP government.

Awong acknowledged the urgent need to raise revenue as the recession deepens, but said he had little reason to trust that their taxes would filter back into their communities based on the PNM government’s history of “rural neglect” during times of plenty.

Awong welcomed the concept of Local Government Reform as campaigned for by the PNM during the last local government election. The reform promised greater autonomy for corporations including the ability for them to collect and use taxes in their municipalities.

However, he said he has little faith in the implementation of reform as its concept has been touted on political platforms for as long as he could remember.

Awong supported the motion on the grounds that this was not the best time for the implementation of a property tax.

The motion calling for the government to suspend the tax for three years was put forward by Alderman Ravi Ratiram in a special statutory meeting of the council yesterday afternoon. All councillors, aldermen, the Chairman and the CEO were in attendance as the motion was passed with only one abstention from the lone PNM Councillor for Las Lomas/ San Raphael, Candida Pathron.

In his closing remarks before the vote, Ratiram ripped up a Property Tax valuation form as was done by UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on April 30 in Debe. Ratiram echoed Persad-Bissessar’s argument that there was no legal obligation to fill out the form.

Newsday asked Chairman Awong whether he supported the call for citizens in disagreement to not fill out the valuation forms. Awong said, “Yes.”

Speaking at the signing ceremony at the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said this consortium will provide a pipeline to channel collaborative activities including the recruitment and exchange of students between participating Caribbean institutions and the Medgar Evers College and other US institutions.

The other universities involved include University of Guyana and EGC Martinique Business School. Garcia said the consortium’s objective is to foster and promote academic collaboration aimed at addressing the economic and social challenges affecting historically disadvantaged people and developing countries.

“And explore and develop new curricula to address the challenges of the changing global environment to serve as a centre for harmonising the efforts of member institutions in the obtaining of the objectives set out and a key driver in all of this is to ensure a Caribbean diaspora fund to invest in education opportunities,” he said.

The minster said the aim of consortium is to establish new programmes relevant to the development of the Caribbean community and the diaspora allowing for articulation student and staff mobility and joint awards.

“It is our desire to ensure that every citizen is afforded the opportunity to improve himself. Be it in the traditional academic areas or the technical vocational field. When our citizens thrive our societies will do well.

This is why it is with great pleasure that we welcome initiatives of this nature which support the development of our human capital.

“As we scan the region, this collaboration will benefit the wider Caribbean as more institutions align themselves to the Consortium creating opportunities for citizens across the region and contributing to its growth as well,” he said. UCIEC Chairman and President of Medgar Evers College Rudy Crew said the consortium was about committing to a set of strategies that are intended to engage and build human capital and share that human capital across the border.

Luis Jose’ Alonzo Benitez, 34, of Venezuela, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Indira Misir- Gosine, to the charge of entering Trinidad and Tobago at a place other than a port of entry.

The magistrate heard from the police prosecutor Sergeant Krishna Bedassie, that on Friday April 26, Benitez entered the country and has been here since. However, last week Tuesday, police of the South-Western Task Force arrested him in south Trinidad and presented him to the Immigration Enforcement Unit.

The police prosecutor went on to tell Misir-Gosine that their records showed that Benitez had been in the country legally, but until June 8, 2016 when he left.

Through Spanish language interpreter Rachael Gosine, the magistrate asked him why he had opted to get into Trinidad and Tobago through an illegal port and failed to present himself to an immigration officer. Benitez said he is married and he has three daughters whose ages are 16, 15 and four. The interpreter added, “He said that he works as an administrator with the social security services in Venezuela.

The situation in my country is very hard. Ninety per cent of the people eat only twice a day. Misir- Gosine reprimanded and discharged Benitez of the charge and told him that no criminal record would be made against his name.