Black Immigrant Daily News

Tekst en beeld Ivan Cairo PARAMARIBO — President Chandrikapersad Santokhi heeft geen voorganger als ondersteuning op zijn kabinet nodig. “Wat

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Desmond McKenzie and Mayor of Kingston Senator Delroy Williams are commending the police for their investigations that led to the arrest and charge of five people in connection with the murder of homeless man, Lionel Johnson.

Both also urged the police to continue their search for the truth in the incident, in which Johnson was doused with a flammable substance and set alight on the night of August 28 on Heroes Circle in Kingston.

He died from the injuries he sustained early the following morning, which prompted a $500,000 reward for information from McKenzie’s ministry.

“I want to appeal to the public that we are going to be relentless against persons who continue to abuse the homeless population, persons who can’t help themselves,” McKenzie said Thursday in an interview while at the handover of indigent housing solutions on Barry Street in downtown Kingston.

On Thursday, the police announced that five teenagers, whose ages range from15 to 17 years, were arrested and charged with the murder of Johnson.

The teens are from the general Fletcher’s Land area, which is one of the housing developments that are on the fringes of Heroes Circle.

“It’s a crying shame because of the age of those persons who are arrested. It sends shockwaves and it’s a frightening situation, but it’s something that we must stand up for and we must repel. I want to commend the police for the job that they have done in the investigation that has brought us to this point,” McKenzie said.

Meanwhile, according to Williams, the murder goes against the commitment of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation to foster and care for the homeless community.

“The municipality is committed to taking care of the homeless population. We have done so through various programmes we operate through the municipality, and we have been working so hard to get the message out there that people must take care of homeless individuals instead of abusing them

“This is a caring city. We want to image Kingston as a caring city. It’s important to us for Kingston to be a caring city, and how we treat and take care of homeless persons are important to us in the city of Kingston,” Williams said.

In the meantime, McKenzie would not comment on whether the reward that was offered by his ministry was instrumental in the arrest of the teenagers.

“I am not going to comment on that aspect right now. There are certain things I am not prepared to say on the matter, but one thing I want to say is that the police must be commended on the job and for those persons who found it fit to lend support, I want to thank them for that effort,” McKenzie said.

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While Waterford High lost ground in the Digicel/ISSA Manning Cup with their 2-2 draw with Calabar High on Friday, defending champions Kingston College (KC) and former champions St George’s College took control of Zone A with identical 9-0 wins over Ardenne High and Meadowbrook High, respectively.

KC maintained their perfect record, winning their sixth straight match to be on top of the zone with maximum 18 points.

Their North Street neighbours, St George’s College, with their fifth win from six games, are in second spot on 15 points and are four points clear of Waterford High.

KC are on the verge of securing their spot in the second round, holding a seven-point advantage over the third-placed team Waterford, and with four sets of games remaining, would have to lose three of their last four games to fail to advance to the second round.

KC’s talisman Dujuan “Whisper” Richards continued to make noise with two more goals, bringing his tally to 12 from six games. He came off the bench for the last eight minutes and scored twice.

Nashardo Gibbs also scored twice, while Romario Campbell, Akeem Weir, Jaheem Johnson, Damaine Smith, and Mario Swaby completed the rout. KC have now scored 29 goals while conceding two.

Meanwhile, in the lone Zone B match, St Catherine High hammered the hapless St Mary’s College 10-0 and joined Jamaica College (JC) atop the group with 16 points.

However, JC remained in the pole position with a superior goal difference of 33 compared to St Catherine’s 23. Both teams are seven points clear of third-placed St Jago High on nine points and are well on their way to the second round.

After six games, of the 36 schools in the Manning Cup, St Catherine High remains the only team not to concede a goal.

The competition continues on Saturday with three games in Zone D. Group leaders STATHS, on 17 points, travel to Jonathan Grant High, who are on 16 points, in a top-of-the-table clash.

Norman Manley High, on 10 points, will host Spanish Town High, while fourth-placed Dunoon Park Technical, on six points, will host bottom-placed Tarrant High, who are on three points.

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Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales – Photo by Jeff Mayers

PUBLIC Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales has dismissed claims by Princes Town MP Barry Padarath that the TT Meteorological Service has been neglected in recent years.

He also rejected reiterated claims by Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh of an alleged plan to fire 2,500 workers from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).

Gonzales made these statements during a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives on Friday.

During that meeting, the committee approved expenditure of $2,572,761,000 for the Public Utilities Ministry in the 2022/2023 budget.

Referring to allocations of $4.7 million and $821,000 for what he described as allocations for infrastructure and the purchase of minor equipment respectively for the Met Service, Padarath alleged that the service was “left to run down.” He wondered whether this was right, given the bad weather TT experienced this week.

Gonzales disagreed, and praised the Met Office for continuing to perform yeoman service.

“As far as I am concerned as minister, I am quite happy with the work that they continue to do.”

Gonzales told MPs, “What we are actually doing here is to ensure that as we move towards the next five-ten years, that we make use of all the necessary equipment, technology etc (to forecast weather conditions)

He said people need to understand that “the weather patterns that we have been experiencing over the last five years is very troubling.”

Gonzales added, “It is very, very important that the work of the Met Office is scrutinised.”

The Met Service must also be properly resourced to do its work efficiently so it can continue to provide reliable information on changing weather patterns.

“That is a key function of their responsibility.”

Gonzales said, “We ought to be very happy that the Government of TT is of the view that the Met Services Division should continue to play a critical role in the (public) utilities sector.”

Later in the meeting, Gonzales rejected reiterated claims by Indarsingh about an alleged plan to fire 2,500 WASA workers as part of a transformation of the authority. WASA rejected these claims in a statement on Monday.

Reminding MPs that the plan has been public knowledge for some time and was approved by Cabinet, Gonzales said, “The transformation plan is taking place.”

He also reminded them the plan will see “some staff rationalisation at the managerial level.”

Gonzales said a more efficient WASA would not have the types of expenditure it now has. He disclosed the authority is examining a virtual guard system for its installations which involves increased use of technology to secure facilities, as opposed to having guards physically on site.

The proposed system would involve establishing command centres in different areas and security teams that would respond to incidents at WASA installations. Gonzales said WASA security officers would be integrated into that system.

In response, Padarath said he would wait to see this initiative materialise.

He also dismissed claims by opposition MPs that his ministry was trying to prevent people from asking the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) whether there would be any increases in water or electricity rates.

After several opposition MPs pleaded for water for communities in their constituencies and Gonzales assured them their concerns would be addressed, Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George told the former that the Standing Finance Committee was not the forum for those requests.

She reminded them about her advice when the sitting began hours earlier.

“What about the efficiency point?”

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