Hindu, youth groups still to make nominations
Stabroek News
October 13, 2002
Parliament Office is still being stymied in its attempts to have two remaining groups name representatives to sit on the Ethnic Relations Commission.
The nominees still to be named are those to represent the Hindu community and youths.
Parliament Office has written the umbrella body for both of the groups but is yet to receive the nominations. However, Stabroek News understands that the chairman of the National Youth Com-mission (NYC), Dr Frank Anthony, is making efforts to convene a meeting of the various youth organisations to select a nominee. The Minis-try of Culture, Youth and Sport is providing some logistical support to Dr Anthony.
The NYC is not the umbrella body for the youth organisations but an advisory body to the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, which advises the ministry on youth issues. Its membership is made up of representatives from the ten administrative regions, the youth arms of the service organisations as well as those of the two main political parties and the major religious groupings.
Stabroek News understands that initial efforts by Dr. Anthony to have the organisations name their nominees and then to have them meet with a view to arriving at a consensus nomination were unrewarding.
He reportedly informed Parliament Office of his lack of success but the Office advised him to convene a meeting of the representatives at which the selection would be made. Stabroek News understands that a date convenient to all the organisations is yet to be fixed.
Stabroek News has also learnt that the Hindu community, of which Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, is a leading member, is making efforts to convene a meeting at which a nominee is to be named.
President Bharrat Jagdeo assented to the bill establishing the Ethnic Relations Com-mission with much fanfare more than twenty-six months ago and the National Assembly approved the motion authorising the Clerk of the National Assembly to invite nominations from the groups identified under the Act just under two years ago. The intention then was to have the commission in place before the 2001 elections. However, it was only in April that Parliament Office was energised to proceed with its mandate.