CHIEF Magistrate Ejenny Espinet is due to sit in on an all-important heads of agencies meeting at the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation chamber hall starting at 10am on Tuesday coming.
This was disclosed by corporation chairman Alderman Keshwar Maharaj.
He said highlight of the agenda is to ensure the corporation’s ban on the serving of drinks in glass bottles for all public functions connected with Carnival 2012 is effectively upheld.
The Grande Corporation took the decision to ban bottles even before the Port-of-Spain City Corporation headed by Mayor Louis Lee Sing did.
Maharaj and his council approved a motion moved by Councillor Dayne Francois at the first statutory meeting after Carnival 2011 called for the ban on drinks served in bottles in public functions in Grande and environs after the main streets of the eastern town was a sea of glass splinters on J’Ouvert morning after rival gangs clashed and hurled bottles at each other.
Even though bedeviled by controversy Lee Sing is moving ahead getting things in place in the capital city as the pace picks up for Carnival 2012, which will climax on February 20 and 21, Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Maharaj is also striving to ensure that the bottle ban is carried out without a hitch.
He told TnT Mirror that it was in that context that the Chief Magistrate was specifically invited to attend the heads of agencies meeting.
Maharaj said head of the Police Service Eastern Division, Supt Hendron Moses as well as Inspector Sewak Baran, who heads the corporation’s municipal police department, would be the enforcement arms for the bottle ban.
Maharaj said Espinet was asked to sit in on the heads of agencies meeting, which includes representatives from the police, WASA, TTEC, TSTT, National Self Help Commission, Environmental Management Authority, Town and Country Planning Division as well as Ministry of the People and Social Development, to ensure that all who approach the Magistracy for occasional bar licenses for the Carnival season would be instructed to serve drinks in paper or plastic cups.
There were over 50 bars operating in Sangre Grande and environs and, according to Maharaj, many of them apply for occasional licenses to extend their profit potential over the Carnival season.
The corporation chairman said it would be up to magistrates to determine the fine or jail term for persons found guilty of selling drinks in glass bottles.
“The magistrate would decide, we at the corporation do not legislate,” Maharaj said, adding that since January 19 persons had been entitled to apply for occasional bar licenses.
