RURAL Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi rejected claims from Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar that he and San Fernando East MP Brian Manning are unfit to hold public office because they had relatives who were politicians.
Al-Rawi also rejected repeated UNC claims that the PNM discriminates against local government corporations the UNC controls.
He was contributing to the budget debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Referring to Persad-Bissessar's contribution in the House on October 6, Al-Rawi said he was surprised to hear her single out Manning and himself as being unworthy to give public service because of their respective family political ties.
Manning is the son of late former prime minister Patrick Manning. Al-Rawi's grandfather Lionel and mother Diane were former PNM parliamentarians.
"The Leader of the Opposition said we (Manning and myself) are disqualified from speaking on TV6 in commentary on the budget because we supposedly come from privileged families."
Al-Rawi said Persad-Bissessar was warning people, "Don't dare have children, don't encourage them to engage in public service, don't encourage them to be patriotic to their society."
He added this was according to "the gospel of Siparia (MP Persad-Bissessar)."
Al-Rawi asked,"What kind of example to the people of Trinidad and Tobago is the self-proclaimed mother of the nation...? What kind of insanity and inequality is that?"
He argued "Without fear or favour malice or ill will, the government spends money across Trinidad in the regional corporations."
After saying his ministrry is speaking with local government corporations about what they require, in accordance with local government reform, Al-Rawi reminded MPs that the residential property tax to be collected by the corporations will give them a new revenue stream to better serve their people.
He estimated that the Princes Town Regional and the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporations could respectively collect $30 million and $60 million in residential property taxes annually.
Al-Rawi reiterated that Government will launch a "virtual gated community" initiative, which involves using footage from CCTV cameras in communities to allow the authorities to track crimes.
He said this would be done with the permission of the owners of those cameras.
"I can tell you, as a person whose own family members were the victims of violence, the persons who were alleged to have committed the crime were captured on the basis of CCTV evidence in the neighbourhood."
In July, a gunman and his accomplices robbed Al-Rawi's in-laws of cash and other valuables at their Westmoorings home .
He said the perpetrators were not arrested because of preferential treatment: "That was just plain old evidence-based policing."
On media reports about crime, Al-Rawi repeated a statement he made last week: "You will realise that we are being fed a diet of negativity."
While acknowledging the freedom of the press, Al-Rawi argued that crime was reported differently
