The accusations levelled by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley against the controversial Life Sport programme started under the aegis of the Ministry of Sport add to the concerns about the project.Life Sport began in August 2012 as an initiative of Minister of Sport Anil Roberts to encourage young people between 16 and 25 to participate in basketball, cricket and football.
Introduced in 33 communities throughout the country, it was an intriguing effort at providing a street-level alternative to crime as a way of improving individual opportunities and seeding a greater capacity to participate in society. When Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar moved the project out of the Ministry of Sport and put it in the Ministry of National Security last month, ordering the third audit into its operations, it seemed that confidence in Life Sport had waned at the highest levels of governance.
Describing the community sporting project as a "cancer," Dr Rowley accused the government of creating a deliberate plan to "fund criminal conduct in the East-West Corridor with the general election in mind."The Prime Minister responded quickly and vigorously to these characterisations of Life Sport, claiming Dr Rowley "may not yet have realised that the PNM's approach to Government of using state agencies to fund criminal gangs was rejected four years ago."
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