He encouraged citizens to use water wisely and, “conserve this precious resource during the dry season.” Hinds said while WASA does not produce water 24/7 and seven days a week, it is working towards doing this.

Later in the sitting, Public Administration and Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie said no decision has been taken to change the retirement age in the Public Service.

He explained that such a decision will only be taken after thorough consultations are done.

The Galicia was expected to leave Trinidad’s waters yesterday at about 2 pm but this was pushed back to 8 pm. During the day, there were reports that attempts were made by Galicia’s crew to depart Tobago for Spain and Coast Guard officials had to intervene.

Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan told Newsday this was not true.

“Everything is working as planned. The ship is loading cargo to come Trinidad and they will offload and then return to Tobago and then leave.” Chairman of the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT), Alison Lewis, also denied such reports.

She said the Galicia was expected to leave Tobago yesterday evening, headed to Spain, after offloading its final cargo in Trinidad.

Meanwhile John Powell, Managing Director of the Galicia’s local agent, Inter-Continental Shipping Limited (ICSL), received a legal letter from the law offices of Dr Claude Denbow SC. Acting on behalf of Sinanan and Government, the law firm said Denbow “has advised that the charter hire agreement (CHA) is still in place.” Powell was given until 9 am today to respond to the firm’s statement that the CHA’s “existence and continuing life has been acknowledged by the letter of 12th August 12, 2016 from ICSL.” Declaring Powell was “acutely aware” of the Galicia’s vital role, the firm said Government was advised that “no amount of damages can compensate for ICSL’s breach of contract”.

Powell was then called on to “continue performing the CHA” until October 31.

If ICSL fails to do so, Government “will take such action as it may be advised in order to compel such performance.” Denbow’s letter to Powell came two days after Sinanan alluded to a possible lawsuit by Government for breach of contract regarding the abrupt withdrawal of the Galicia from service on the sea bridge.

Newsday attempted to speak with Powell yesterday but calls to his phone went unanswered. Sinanan said Powell’s attorneys “responded with some options around midday, to which our attorneys responded in turn. If (ICSL) can find a replacement for the Galicia without there being any disruption in service, that would be acceptable to us. However this would mean another vessel taking over from Sunday; the next scheduled cargo sailing,” Sinanan stated.

Sheldon Mc Clarence appeared before Senior Magistrate Margaret Alert in the San Fernando Magistrates’ court yesterday afternoon, charged with shooting with intent, possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition, possession of a firearm to endanger life and possession of ammunition to endanger life.

The magistrate told Mc Clarence that the charges were laid indictably and he was not called upon to plead. The charges arose from a report that on Wednesday, a party of police officers headed by Sgt Natasha Morrison, Cpl Roger Nanan, WPC Praveen Rajkumar, PCs Sandeep Maraj and Shakeel Charles of the San Fernando CID, investigated a shooting incident at George Street, La Romaine.

Court prosecutor Sgt Krishna Beedasie, told Magistrate Alert that Mc Clarence was out on bail when he was arrested. The magistrate refused bail but advised Mc Clarence of his right to apply for bail to a judge in chambers.

Dillon added that his ministry is collaborating with the Health Ministry on this issue and the Prison Service does have a regular programme to deal with rats and rat infestation.

“This government works as team,” he said.

Later in the sitting, Dillon said 34 Caricom nationals were deported from TT for criminal offences between 2014 and 2016.

Within this group, Jamaicans were the largest category with 27 being deported.

During the same period, 823 Caricom nationals were deported from this country for reasons other than the commission of criminal offences. In this group, Jamaicans were also the largest number, with 373 being deported.

While some residents supported a peace initiative hosted by the Islamic Front and started on Thursday, others criticised the move saying it was not genuine. The initiative saw participants including members of an alleged gang, distributing flowers and water to passers-by and motorists in Enterprise.

“Don’t bother with them, they saw death coming. Is only now because police and soldiers are around are we are feeling a little safer.

But we know the aftershocks.

It will come and when it does, it will be rapid. People are not living in peace here,” said Glenda Morris, 66, of Gittens Lane.

At present, residents said, there is a temporary respite from the murder and mayhem due to an increase in police and soldiers in the community. Speaking to media personnel on a tour with police yesterday, residents noted they were uncertain as to how long the peace will last.

Residents complained that gang members place restrictions as to where they can pass and not pass.

The constant sound of gunshots, followed by screeching vehicles have taken a toll on the health of residents especially pensioners. Many complained of sleepless nights.

“I am not afraid to speak out. If they want to kill me, then so being.

I done live my life already. I have no fear…

kill me. I ready to go because we are living in mess. You cannot walk the road, it is as though you done dead already (sic). I am not going any more funerals again, who dead, dead. I fed up of funerals,” Morris said.

Many youths from Enterprise did not want to go on the record with their names published out of fear of offending members of the two gangs operating in the community. Those will to go on the record, were pensioners.

Mavis Forbes, 85, of Manwell Street, praised the police and soldiers for visiting the area adding she wishes they visit, “every day and night”.

She recalled hearing a recent shooting death near her home adding she was unable to eat “for a while”. The elderly woman said she thought she was going to die that morning.

Asked if she has any advice for the young men in the area, Forbes responded: “Not me papa, I fraid them.

I don’t meddle with them.” Mother of five Michaelina Lewis, 40, of Dass Trace, said she has no ill-feelings towards gunmen who shot and killed her son Michael, 21, on January 21.

With the joint army and police patrol as well as the peace initiative, Lewis said she is optimistic of a better future.

“If God can forgive, who are we? I don’t have any ill-feeling towards them because of my relationship with God. I never wanted revenge.

My son was in the wrong place at the wrong time and his death rocked the community,” Lewis added.

Among the police and soldiers on the tour yesterday were ASPs Michael Pierre and Richard Smith, Insp Chunilal Bedassie and Lt Col Collin Millington.

Wednesday’s Newsday report on the situation at the Port-of- Spain Prison and at Golden Grove in Arouca is likely just the tip of the iceberg. With an aging criminal justice infrastructure (some of which dates back to colonial time), it is little surprise that the State has had to tender over time for special measures to deal with these unwelcomed guests. But in recent times, it seems, the situation has become more fraught .

Truly surreal scenes were described in Wednesday’s report .

People contacted Newsday, from behind bars, to complain that rats are everywhere including in eating areas, in cells, in bathrooms, in kitchens, in prison officers’ quarters .

Videos showed rodents going about their business, oblivious to the attention they were attracting .

Is there any more striking symbol of how poor prison conditions are? Earlier this month came reports of a water shortage at the Carrera Island prison. The situation was so bad the prison authorities had to allow prisoners to bathe in the sea under their supervision .

Newsday understands that years ago, a contract was given to a local pest eradication company to exterminate the rodents and that company undertook a major fumigation of prisons. However, the contract has since expired and with the latest rat infestation, executives of the prison authorities sent tenders for companies to bid for a new contract .

While that process is underway, the rats are multiplying at a rapid rate, putting both prisoners and prison officers at risk .

This raises a number of questions .

What is the reason for the sudden upsurge of this hazard and could it have been foreseen? Why has retendering for what should be a rudimentary maintenance issue taken so long? Is the situation affected by the physical conditions? Is there some vulnerability in prison design that has allowed rats to proliferate? If large rats are sneaking in and out, what is sneaking in and out with them? This is not only a matter that should be brought to the attention of the Ministry of National Security .

It potentially involves local government and the Ministry of Health .

The later, in particular, has an interest in ensuring all public health concerns are contained. And make no mistake. While seemingly limited to behind prison bars, this is a matter that has the potential to affect well beyond .

There is a fear that both prisoners and prison officers could fall ill from rat-borne diseases including leptospirosis, and rat-bite fever. There is also the risk that people coming into the prisons, such as visiting family members, could suffer as well .

President of the Prison Officers Association, Ceron Richards, has accused the Government of placing the issue on the back burner .

“Calls for help on this issue, just like our pleas for stab-proof vests and CCTV cameras to be installed, are being ignored and in some cases bogged down by bureaucracy,” claimed Richards. “The Government knows they are dealing with prisoners who cannot leave the prisons and prison officers who are too devoted to walk off the job. So we have to take what we get. The only thing consistent with the State is their excuses and the fact that they are not dealing with this and other problems.” It is easy to castigate “the Government” at large when administrative officials fail in their jobs. Missing from Richards’ account is an indication of when and to whom complaints have been addressed .

However, it is clear enough in our view that more needs to be done by the State to modernise and sanitise the penal system. The system should be about rehabilitation, not a case of men and mice .

Delivering the feature address at the National Social Policy Forum 2017 at the Port-of- Spain City Hall on April 19, 2017 on behalf of the Minister of Social Development and Family Services, Cherrie-Ann Critchlow-Cockburn, she lamented that many reports which have been produced at great expense by the Government remain on the shelves somewhere gathering dust. She said that in the current economic situation, in which the country finds itself with limited funds, this use of taxpayer money cannot continue and greater efforts must be made to ensure better targeting and disbursement of the now limited resources available in the public sector.

Bailey-Sobers spoke about the need to develop the relationship between research and policy formulation, observing that the ministry has a “distinct remit” to direct, facilitate and enable the development, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of social sector policies and programmes to ensure sustainability, cultural relevance and economic viability.

She said that policies developed as a nation, whether aimed at reducing poverty or managing issues related to persons with disabilities or even on child and family life are all part of the extensive and combined efforts to ensure that a sustainable safety net is provided for the vulnerable charges in society.

She said this was the third National Policy Forum and asked participants to reflect on what they had learned since the first one was held, stating that it was time to stop the talk shops and get down to dealing with the problems which had been identified in the previous policy foras.

The event attracted social sector representatives from different ministries under the theme “Improving Policy, Improving Lives”.

Bailey-Sobers said she was heartened that there were representatives from tertiary level institutions including the University of the West Indies and the Public Service Academy to speak to the participants about the programmes they could use to enhance their career in the public service.

Bailey-Sobers said there have been frequent complaints about ministries failing to cooperate and working in their own silos with little contact with each other.

She hoped that such fora would bring public servants together to get to know each other and synergise so that they could be more effective in their jobs.

She invited participants to engage in honest and open feedback and called on them to be resolute in their efforts to continually improve their delivery and execution of sustainable social sector programmes.

“We owe no less to our country at this critical time and I have faith in the vulnerable groups out there: persons who have lost their jobs, persons who have been retrenched, persons who have no hope of getting a job at this critical time in our development.” Participants also benefitted from a presentation on Incorporating evidence-based research in policy development from Dr Patrice Parris-Searles, Manager, Research, Planning and Development at the National Training Agency.

G, I thought, could not still be trapped in the prison system. G smiled faintly as he walked towards me .

After those mundane pleasantries that we all exchange initially in a conversation, I asked, “Do you have a court day yet?” It was a fair and unfair question: fair because he should have had a court date by now, and unfair because G has been in the prison’s remand system for over ten years now .

“I went to court the other day,” he said, “and I have a date to go back the end of June.” June, I thought, is a long way off for someone who has waited for a court date for ten years .

I first met G in YTC. I had asked for him to be put in my English class after I heard a speech that he had made on Emancipation Day. “Why haven’t I ever seen this young man?” I asked .

G had nearly made himself invisible in YTC. When I first met G, he was tall and lanky; quiet and shy. He would wait silently on the sidelines at YTC events when family had been invited. Moving nervously from one foot to the next, his gaze remained glued to the entrance where family would have to pass in order to get to the football field. Completely oblivious to the happy reunions between lads and their parents, he’d bite his lip and hope silently, nervously to see his family .

“If no one comes,” I would always say, “I will be your family.” G would nod and smile without shifting his gaze .

For a time, it seemed G had been lost in the system. Once, I had someone check to see where G’s file had landed. The DPP’s office, I was told. “He’ll have a court date in a year.” I received that information about three years ago .

In the meantime, I tried to get G to settle down into English classes. He had a difficult time focusing, but he tried his best .

Once, he wrote about how he ended up in YTC. At 14, he had gone to live in a house with other boys because he didn’t get along with his stepfather. A man in his 20s controlled the boys — usual story. By 16, G was in big trouble, and he had been charged with a capital offence. G’s story is a complicated one, as most stories are. It is a sad one too — as most stories of young men in prison .

Over the years, I could never help but feel that society had failed G .

Watching him at that religious gathering about two months ago, I thought how this teenager had grown up in the prison system .

He still seems like a teenager. He’s a young man who appears to be battered by society .

I wonder what will happen to G now. How will he find the world that he will return to? How will he fit in? Where will he go? These are questions I couldn’t bring myself to ask. A lot has changed in ten years, I think. I don’t know how well equipped G will be to face those changes. He has a few computer classes; some YTEP classes. Is that enough? I hope G will find his way in a society that failed him miserably .

I hope this with all my heart because I for one love him, and I long to see what he will make of his

This according to the NGC which issued a statement on recent discussions over construction of the Methanol and Dimethyl Ether plant at Union Industrial Estate. The plant will cost $1 billion to construct and completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2018.

On April 11, NGC Group Chairman Gerry Brooks accompanied by NGC President Mark Loquan and VP Finance, Narinejit Pariag, met with senior representatives of Mitsubishi Gas Holdings, Massy Holdings Limited and JBIC to discuss the complex. Also in attendance at the meeting in Port-of-Spain were CEO of Massy Holdings Limited Gervase Warner and Executive Chairman of Massy’s Energy and Industrial Gases Business Unit, Eugene Tiah.

The NGC release said discussions centred around several matters including the progress of the plant with Mitsubishi officials and Brooks assuring representatives of the JBIC, that CGCL had made excellent progress to date.

“Mitsubishi engineers also intend using the dry season to advance construction to ensure critical deadlines are met. CGCL’s role in Trinidad is integral given that it currently employs approximately 500 persons, many of whom are drawn from the community of La Brea.

Additional employees will be recruited over the next phase of the project,” NGC stated.

Brooks also updated JBIC on a number of initiatives to improve the short to medium term gas supply, including Trinidad Region Onshore Compression project (TROC) in the third quarter of 2017 and Juniper, scheduled for the third quarter of 2017.

Citing the recent successful negotiations for gas supply with bpTT and the Angelin Project, NGC said Brooks “underscored the future potential of other game-changing initiatives such as gas from the Dragon field, currently progressing apace with PDVSA and Shell; exploration of over 150 small and marginal fields; future possibilities of supply from the Rio Caribe and Soldado fields and unconventional sources that would provide resolution in the medium to long term.” According to Nakaba Aoyagi, Director, Project Executive Advisor, CGCL, the JBIC contingent, “had a positive impression on NGC’s future gas supply plan” and were reassured that NGC and GORTT were committed to resolving the supply/ demand balance by greater coordination and collaboration with the players in the value chain.

Caribbean Gas Chemical Limited (CGCL) is a joint venture consortium comprising NGC, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Incorporated, Mitsubishi Corporation and local conglomerate Massy Holdings Limited. JBIC is the main lender for the billion-dollar CGCL project.

Brooks told PAEC members that the main challenge is accessing gas in the short term and the NGC is working assiduously on that front. Reiterating that a target has been set to complete a gas sales agreement for Venezuela’s Dragon Field by July, Brooks said teams from the NGC, Shell and Venezuelan energy company Petr?leos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) are working hard to achieve this goal. He added, “Quite recently we were able to sign off on the BP Angelin contract.” Brooks explained, “These activities will not solve our problems but certainly they will help us to fend with the times.” Brooks said the period beyond 2019 to 2023 period is critical for this country, “to see how we tee up” the required supplies of natural gas.