Crime fight to create 20,000 jobs in Trinidad

(CNS): Fighting the country’s rising crime problem will create employment for more than 20,000 people Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has announced. Government will be investing some $300 million as part of the strategy to fight crime in a programme entitled “Reclaiming Our Youths, Embracing Our Future”. In a statement in the House of Representatives on Wednesday she said the job creation exercise will engage mainly youths from vulnerable communities. Earlier this week, Persad-Bissessar announced that the government had lifted the curfew imposed after the country’s State of Emergency was declared on 21 August but the emergency remains in place.

Persad-Bissessar has advised citizens to observe the law as government reserves the right to impose limited curfews “when and where necessary,” she said.

The PM said government would expand CCTV across cities, malls and vulnerable areas and increase the number of mobile patrols.  “We will introduce a range of specifically targeted social and cultural initiatives to strengthen community life,” she said.

The T&T government is also considering the abolition of Preliminary Inquiries and video conferencing at court to reduce transportation costs.