Yvonne Ba­boolal

Hous­ing and En­vi­ron­ment Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal says the Gov­ern­ment wants to in­clude the Op­po­si­tion PNM in pol­i­cy-mak­ing but the of­fer is be­ing flat­ly re­ject­ed. He said this dur­ing the launch of CEPEP Ma­rine at Ch­aguara­mas last Fri­day. Re­fer­ring to the Hang­ing Bill, Mooni­lal said the Gov­ern­ment in­vit­ed the Op­po­si­tion to sub­mit ideas as prepa­ra­tions are be­ing made to re­draft the bill. "It's re­gret­table that Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley did not think it fit to ac­cept the of­fer," he said.

"It was not a let­ter invit­ing him to an all-in­clu­sive par­ty. "Ev­i­dent­ly, they have no pro­pos­als and they don't sup­port the Gov­ern­ment's pro­pos­als.I am urg­ing them to come up with some ideas." Mooni­lal says it's back to the draw­ing board as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan pre­pares to re­draft the leg­is­la­tion. Asked if the Gov­ern­ment was pre­pared for chal­lenges from hu­man rights or­gan­i­sa­tions, he said there was an im­me­di­ate need to pro­tect cit­i­zens and up­hold the law.