00:00Rural Development and Local Government Minister Khadijah Amin is dismissing comments made by opposition leader Penelope Beckles
00:08on a cabinet-appointed committee tasked with reviewing Trinidad and Tobago's 14 municipal corporations.
00:16Amin described the comments as mischievous and misleading.
00:20There is some assertion that it's very misleading and it speaks to a lack of understanding of the parliamentary process
00:30and what an act of parliament allows and what the EBC is responsible for.
00:37Opposition leader Penelope Beckles had argued that any proposal involving boundary changes
00:43falls under the remit of the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
00:46I think such statements really undermine public confidence, but it distorts facts.
00:52But Minister Amin says the current review is technocratic, not political,
00:57and is focused on governance and service delivery, not electoral manipulation.
01:03The cabinet-appointed committee to review the boundaries of municipalities is not a UNC committee.
01:11It is also not chaired by any minister.
01:14It is a cabinet-appointed committee led by a retired and very competent former public servant,
01:22the former director of planning at the Tongan Country Planning,
01:26and a former acting permanent secretary in the ministry of then local government.
01:33The chairperson of this committee is a technocrat with decades of professional experience
01:39and a person who does not have any political affiliation.
01:43So this is not a political committee in any way.
01:47She also drew a distinction between municipal boundaries and electoral district boundaries,
01:53noting that while the EBC oversees electoral districts,
01:57municipal boundaries are governed by acts of parliament,
02:00with precedents set in the 1980s and 1990s.
02:05But an act of parliament is responsible for the boundaries of the municipalities.
02:12The boundaries of the electoral districts fall under the responsibility of the EBC.
02:19The minister stressed that the committee will not make changes,
02:22but will instead analyse data before making recommendations.
02:26The committee is not making the changes.
02:29The committee will look at the data, they will look at growth polls,
02:34they will look at concentrations in terms of not just population, but amenities,
02:41they will look at areas that have commercialised, commercial centres,
02:46and schools and a concentration of other activities,
02:50and they will analyse and make recommendations.
02:54It is up to the cabinet and then the parliament to accept these recommendations.
03:02Amin also assured that all municipal corporations,
03:05regardless of political control, will be heard during the process.
03:09The PNM, of course, they are free to make recommendations.
03:14The PNM corporations will be part of the consultation
03:17and they can have their input there.
03:20And, of course, we look forward because it's a continuous conversation.
03:23According to the minister, the review is necessary to address disparities
03:27in population size and funding allocation,
03:30pointing to municipalities with populations as high as 250,000
03:35compared to others with as few as 20,000 residents.
03:40Urvishita Mori Rupnaraim, TV6 News.
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