It means hiring hundreds of people, then training them on how to valuate a property before they could venture out on the job.

In order to speed up the process, I suggest this formula: if in 2009 property owners were paying between $100 and $499 in building tax a year, they would now pay 300 percent more, which means they would pay between $300 and $1,497 a year.

This exercise could be further used for those owners who were paying a higher annual tax in 2009. Their taxes could now be increased by charging them at a lower percentage rate.

GERARD DUVAL Petit Valley

B Sandy Maraval

For the past two weeks, there has been no pipe borne water after the pump went down. Prison officers were forced to allow prisoners to bathe in the sea as part of their daily personal hygiene routine. Toilets remained unflushed creating a massive stink while laundry was not washed. On Wednesday, prison officers could no longer bear the stress and decided to donate their own money to purchase the part for the pump.

Yesterday, repairs were effected and by mid-morning water was flowing once again much to the relief of both inmates and prison guards. President of the Prison Officers Association Ceran Richards said he was dumbstruck on learning that $400 was all that was needed to repair the pump and bring relief.

Yet, the authorities dragged the issue on for weeks while everyone on the island suffered.

“The Association is extremely angry that a minor repair was left for so long to the extent where our members had to use their own money to purchase the part,” Richards said, adding that $400 solved the problem while $1.5M was set aside in the National Budget to rectify long-standing water issues on the island prison.

Newsday understands it cost tax payers $30,000 per month ($360,000 a year) to pay a contractor to provide potable water via a barge to the island when one water line connection, from Nelson Island to the island prison, could permanently solve the water issue and save the country hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Efforts to Acting Prisons Commissioner Cecil Duke on the matter proved futile.

Police believe the body is that of the missing man Deoraj Bedassie. Police said the body was chopped into pieces and the parts stuffed in a black garbage bag and dumped in the cesspit.

A 25-year-old villager was assisting police with their investigations up to late yesterday.

At about 1.30 pm, police officers of the Homicide Region Three went to Bedassie’s house along Black Street, Reform Village.

They spent several hours searching the forested area before they made the gruesome discovery.

Bedassie, who lived alone, was last seen alive by relatives at his home on March 26, his birthday.

One day later, relatives found blood stains in his gallery and contacted police officers. A missing person’s report was also made at the Gasparillo Police Station.

At the scene yesterday, relatives told Newsday Bedassie had complained to them on several occasions about being beaten by a group of villagers who wanted him to move out of the area.

Bedassie’s niece Cindy Benjamin said the villagers had also threatened her uncle. She said on each occasion he was beaten he reported the incident to police.

“Only a few months ago I remember seeing my uncle with bruises all over his body and he told us that he was beaten by these men,” an emotional Benjamin said.

Police have also obtained information from an eyewitness who saw three men planassing Bedassie in his gallery on the night he disappeared. The eyewitness reported that she heard Bedassie scream out in pain and pleaded with his attackers to desist from harming him.

It is believed that Bedassie was beaten in the gallery of his home and dragged to the back of his house as there was a trail of blood in the backyard.

“We have been searching everywhere for the past ten days for him and nothing,” Benjamin said.

“We searched health centres, hospitals, we called relatives and his friends. But because of the blood in the house I knew he was hurt. Whoever did this is not human but a monster. My uncle did not deserve this. These people are heartless.” Benjamin said Bedassie wanted to spend a peaceful birthday.

“He left home that morning and told us he just wanted to spend the day liming with friends. He did so and came home in the evening and that was when he was attacked.” Investigators said DNA samples will be taken from relatives to confirm the identity. The body parts were sent to the Forensic Science Centre for further testing.

Villagers told Newsday that for the past few days they had been getting a foul stench near the house.

Member of Parliament for the area Rodney Charles, in a media release, extended condolences to the family. Charles said the discovery of the body has now cast a dark shadow over the quiet area of Black Street.

“The wanton disregard for human life is evident as bodies are strewn on our streets on a daily basis,” he said. “A sense of hopelessness pervades our nation.”

According to police reports, at about 6.30pm, Dayanand Persad a mechanic of Gunness Trace, Barrackpore and Sanjit Jaglal, 43, were at their workplace, Vick’s Trinidad Limited located on Rochard Douglas Road, where they were offloading truck parts from a 40-foot container.

The final item to be offloaded was said to be a tray for a flat bed wrecker. As the tray was being removed, it fell and pinned Persad against the wall of the container.

Other workers used chain blocks to free him but he was already dead.

Persad was not married and did not have any children.

When Newsday visited his home, distraught relatives described him as a “very loving, free minded and helpful” person who loved to watch sports and go hunting despite being a vegetarian.

His brother-in-law Steve Surujbally said Persad was the “closest thing to a brother you could find.” However, Surujbally, who had also gone to the scene said the ambulance arrived almost 90 minutes after the call for assistance was made. He said the outcome may have been different had they arrived within a reasonable time.

Surujbally said Persad’s employer visited the family and pledged to assist with the funeral arrangements and his mother, Kamla Persad, 68, who was surrounded by friends and relatives, was trying to come to terms with the sudden death of her son.

His sister, Sindu Surujbally, 41, described her brother as a “happy person” who enjoyed family gatherings.

Cpl Roopnarine of the Barrackpore Police Station is continuing investigations.

Calling their gathering a “fraternity meeting” so as to avoid disciplinary action for staging a protest, some principals from the South Eastern District wore black and gathered outside the South Eastern Education District Office yesterday to show their support for Paul. “This entire week, we are calling on all principals and teachers to wear black to stand in solidarity with Mr Paul,” said Cogland Griffith, President of the Primary School Principals Association.

But throughout the day yesterday, confusion reigned over whether Paul was actually “suspended” as was previously reported or merely asked to not report for duty pending the outcome of investigations into the alleged bullying attack against Tristan Khan in February.

In a release to the media, TTUTA President, Lynsley Doodhai, said Paul was formally served a “notice of suspension” from the Service Commission on Friday on account of a report from the District School Supervisor III who, after investigating, alleged that Paul committed “acts of misconduct by being negligent in the performance of his duties.” On the other hand, Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis yesterday said in a text message to Newsday that Paul was not “suspended”. “He has been asked not to report for duty which is non-punitive. The investigation is on-going.” Despite this, both Doodhai and Griffith say they remain unclear as to the actual reason for the action taken against Paul. Griffith is calling for an urgent meeting with the Education Ministry to discuss the matter. He said he hopes that the Ministry’s position that Paul was not suspended was not just semantics.

TTUTA yesterday showed its support for Paul, saying he will be given the full representation of the organisation as they believe he will be vindicated. “TTUTA is not convinced that the MOE carefully considered the facts before arriving at the decision to recommend to the Teaching Service Commission disciplinary action against Mr Paul. When due diligence is not observed the affected teacher suffers emotional and trauma and mental anguish.” Paul did not show up for work on Monday or yesterday.

Wilston Campbell, 74, was confronted by the police shortly before 8 am while he was preparing to go to the High Court.

He was served with a warrant and police officers began their search. After about three hours of searching and questioning Campbell, the police led him out of his office. An attorney for 40 years, Campbell was held around the left arm by a policeman while the rest of them walked behind him from the nearby Court Street, past the Traffic Court to the San Fernando Police Headquarters building.

Campbell was up to late yesterday being questioned about some documents which were seized from his office.

The arguments range from claims that the present managed float is not working and there is need for more flexibility, to expressions of a need for a more realistic exchange rate since failure to do so would lead to stagnation in investment and capital flight.

It was advanced that a depreciated currency would help our exporters and manufacturers to be more competitive, assist manufacturers to compete locally with imported products and generally dampen the current demand for foreign exchange.

What really is the problem? The simple answer is shortage of supply of foreign currency. How then do we address this and how does change in the price for foreign currency by allowing the local currency to depreciate, help this situation? Once there is a depreciation then the price of all imported items will go up in the local market and, among other things, this will cause food inflation and cost-of-living challenges for the most vulnerable.

All fixed-income earners and pensioners will experience a fall in their purchasing power and standard of living.

Is allowing a depreciation the only solution? The answer is no.

And here the Minister of Finance and the Central Bank Governor are to be complimented in the strategy they appear to have adopted: firstly, the Central Bank while allowing the local currency to depreciate very slowly and not dramatically or to the magnitude as suggested by some. Remember the problem is shortage of foreign currency caused by falling production of oil and gas, international price of both commodities, and the 100 percent write-off of investment in the year that it is made. The latter would reduce the level of taxes paid and so reduce the foreign currency paid in taxes to the Government.

Clearly the Central Bank Governor would see the whole picture and would not have considered modelling the response to a dramatic devaluation in the best interest of the economy. How does anyone justify a depreciation of 18.5 percent while sitting on US$9.4 billion in reserves and another US$5.25 billion in the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund.

More importantly, there is a failure to realise that the fiscal authority has taken the lead and not left correcting the imbalance in the foreign exchange market to the monetary authority.

We have seen that the Minister of Finance has abandoned the flat 25 per cent tax policy and introduced a second category by imposing a 30 per cent tax on individuals and companies earning income of more than $1 million a year. He has also imposed a seven per cent tax on online purchases and signalled implementation of the long-awaited property tax regime.

Additionally, the 50 per cent increase in customs duty and motor vehicle tax on luxury vehicles would curtail demand for these items. This has allowed fiscal policy to reduce aggregate demand for foreign exchange rather than exchange rate adjustments, the use of higher interest rates and/or a wages policy for foreign exchange demand management.

We expect with the new gas fields coming on stream, and if prices firm a bit, the net benefit would be a sizeable increase in foreign currency coming into the foreign exchange market and being added to the reserves at the Central Bank.

Surely this approach/analysis by the authorities appear to be sound and far more balanced, one that is also people friendly, less corrosive to the economy and a responsible one.

Essentially, her argument, which is one I have argued myself, is that human rights are meaningless if not treated as indivisible. In other words, citizens should have as equal an expectation that the law protects their freedoms, as it provides for their ability to demand fair and equitable treatment in the distribution of the resources of the State.

For example, the Government ought not to be reintroducing hangings as a means of protecting the public from criminality, without also examining its performance on providing viable education alternatives for those whose life opportunities lead them down the path of criminality, often ending up on death row. In this context, has anyone examined the socio-economic profile of the prison population in Trinidad and Tobago? Clearly, the analysis that Prof Antoine presented provided far greater depth on how and why judges could define their role as going beyond the traditional focus of defending the rule of law to address inequality.

From a layman’s point of view, it sounds simple enough, but in fact the relationship between human rights and the rule of law is complex, particularly when equating civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights.

But what can a judge rely on to determine whether the Government has taken a fair decision in allocating resources to providing all its citizens with equal access to quality education or healthcare or to promote their identities and wellbeing? Judges need evidence. This is the conundrum of economic, social and cultural rights.

Although critics may not recognise some economic, social and cultural rights as important legal rights, there is agreement on the responsibility of the State in defending the right to work and the right to property. Also, the right to food is considered an economic right, nevertheless it’s also a fundamental right for the protection of an individual’s life.

There is also general agreement on the right to special protection for children. To enforce this right, the Government has to provide and assure health, food, education and property. Furthermore, the protection and promotion of these minimum standards of education, health and wellbeing are closely related with the development of the nation. If that is so, the responsibility of addressing inequality should not fall to judges alone. Where are our economists and politicians on this issue? Many years ago, I worked with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. He was a lawyer by training, but argued for two ways of advancing human rights. One way is via the courts and the other, by bringing human rights to bear upon policymaking processes. The two approaches are intimately related and mutually reinforcing.

The policy approach demands close cooperation among a range of disciplines and experts and demands vigilant monitoring and accountability, which should take the form of publicly available rigorous human rights impact assessments that check whether the relevant policy has delivered positive human rights outcomes consistent with the State’s legal commitments.

If we are serious about human rights it cannot be left to judges and lawyers alone.

If we are serious about addressing the protection of civil and political rights and the progressive promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, then economists and social scientists must also engage. Human rights must be integrated into policymaking and experts from all disciplines must take responsibility to enable and monitor the Government in its performance against the benchmark of equality.

Self, of Jokhan Trace, Pascal Lane was charged by Corporal Dirk John and appeared before Magistrate Avason Quinlan. He is expected to return to court on May 1.

And in the Port of Spain Magistrates Court, 30-year-old Davis Charles, also known as “Faces” of Assing Avenue, Bourg Mulatresse, San Juan, and 28-yearold Jimall “Mike Jones” Gibbs of Thompson Lane, Lower Santa Cruz appeared having been charged with the murder of 38-year-old Anthony Sammy who was shot dead in his Santa Cruz home on January 15. They were charged by PC Chad Bushell.