PM Kamla delivers on 1 of 30 promises on day 1

The countdown has started and Trinidad and Tobago is waiting for the new People's Partnership government under the leadership of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to deliver on its 120-day plan.

Persad-Bissessar got off to a running start, foregoing the festivities on her inauguration day to have an emergency meeting with top officials to discuss serious flooding affecting dozens of communities. And the next day she was out with her MPs meeting people in an attempt to figure out how best to deal with the problem.

On Friday after a night of brainstorming she came up with a cabinet that she says comprises the best in the country. The team includes a minister of the people as promised, one ministry to deal with food production and another for Tobago development.

The record shows one of 30 promises fulfilled in day one. JYOTI will be keeping track of the others. Here's the list:

1. a laptop computer for every child going on to secondary school from the SEA to begin their secondary school education
2. begin addressing the issue of securing and expanding GATE
3. rescind the property tax
4. establish a Working Committee to review all program targeted at poverty alleviation and social support
5. begin an aggressive programme to fix all leaks in WASA
6. coordinate integrated action on water resources management, drainage, irrigation, flooding, water capture, conservation, sustainable food production and food security release appropriate resources from the Green Fund to reforest areas
7. begin the rehabilitation and paving of existing access roads and construction of new ones
8. establish Ministry of the People
9. begin a review process for the minimum wage
10. prepare an immediate action plan for containing criminal activities and reducing the number of murders
11. begin to identify and address the fundamental challenges to the effective management of law and order
12. deploy police on the streets, on the beat and in the communities
13. initiate a process to make every police station a centre for crime containment and reduction
14. begin the process of reviewing the laws and institutions which address white-collar crime with a view to strengthening them
15. strengthen the National Security Council to link intelligence gathering and assessment with strategy and execution in crime fighting
16. replace the Senior Citizens’ Grant with Old Age Pension and increase it to $3,000
17. look at the immediate challenges of each hospital and determine needs
18. establish an independent LIFE fund of $100 million for life-saving surgery for children
    
19. begin the introduction of camera technology at traffic lights and set into motion an efficient system of ticketing offenders
20. each Minister will be required to present a one-year action agenda for consideration and approval by Cabinet after consultation with senior Ministerial staff within thirty (30) working days after swearing in
21. each Ministry will be required to begin work on a five-year strategic plan within the first sixty days for completion by February 2011 within the framework of our manifesto
22. establish an Economic Development Board which will consult with stakeholders and play an advisory role in policy formulation
23. establish a Civil Society Board to strengthen the voice and influence of NGOs and civil society organizations
24. initiate consultation to develop a coherent export strategy, an industrial policy linked to knowledge formation and a national services industries competitiveness strategy with key stakeholders
25. initiate a Forensic audit of Petrotrin and other State Bodies where there are grounds for suspicion of misconduct similar to what obtained in UDeCOTT
26. establish a legislative agenda, aligned to our one-year action plan to establish the sequence of flow of bills to Parliament in the first year
27. establish a timetable for Constitution Reform beginning with consultations
28. work with the Central Bank, CSO and the public service to determine the true condition of the country’s finances and the state of the economy and the condition of projects to share that information with our citizens
29. share with citizens priorities for action during the first budgetary period
30. formulate a project plan for completion of all infrastructural projects currently in train in Tobago
31. establish a Ways and Means Committee to formulate a project plan on a phased basis to make all Government public services more accessible to residents of Tobago