Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Min­is­ter of State in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Collin Par­tap says the Gov­ern­ment will con­sid­er an in­creased sub­sidy for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cadet Force as it is an im­por­tant tool in the fight against crime. He made the state­ment on Sun­day as he par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 102nd an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions of the Cadet Force at the Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help Ro­man Catholic Church, Har­ris Prom­e­nade, San Fer­nan­do. Par­tap, when asked by re­porters about an in­creased sub­sidy for the cadets, said: "That will be looked at." He stressed that the Gov­ern­ment recog­nised the im­por­tance of the cadets for youth de­vel­op­ment. "The Min­istry is once again look­ing at the Cadet Force to rein in the young peo­ple and make sure that this gen­er­a­tion is not lost to us as in the past," Par­tap said.

He said the min­istry was com­mis­sion­ing a num­ber of Cadet Force units in many schools and the re­sponse from stu­dents had been "over­whelm­ing." "In fact when we go to those schools to com­mis­sion, a lot more stu­dents join the Cadet Force be­cause they see that it gives chil­dren the dis­ci­pline they would not nec­es­sar­i­ly have on the out­side," Par­tap said. He said units had been com­mis­sioned at Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary School and at the Cara­pichaima Sec­ondary School. Cadets from all re­gions pa­rad­ed through the streets of San Fer­nan­do dur­ing Sun­day's event.