Ameen: Consultations on gated community policy ongoing

Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Khadi­jah Ameen says con­sul­ta­tions are still un­der­way on the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed na­tion­al pol­i­cy for gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties, as ef­forts con­tin­ue to for­malise a frame­work aimed at strength­en­ing crime pre­ven­tion mea­sures.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ameen con­firmed that an in­ter-min­is­te­r­i­al com­mit­tee re­mains en­gaged in re­view­ing ex­ist­ing laws and con­sult­ing with key stake­hold­ers be­fore fi­nal­is­ing its rec­om­men­da­tions.

“The com­mit­tee is re­spon­si­ble for ex­am­in­ing all the ex­ist­ing laws and by-laws and com­ing up with a pol­i­cy that will be a uni­form pol­i­cy that all mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties, cities, bor­oughs and re­gions can use,” she said.

The pro­posed pol­i­cy, first an­nounced last Au­gust, is in­tend­ed to guide how com­mu­ni­ties can ap­ply for re­strict­ed ac­cess to cer­tain ar­eas as a means of de­ter­ring crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty or ad­dress­ing fears of crime.

Ameen clar­i­fied, how­ev­er, that the pol­i­cy will not grant ap­proval for gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties out­right, nor will it deal di­rect­ly with polic­ing.

“It does not give ap­proval for gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties. It pro­vides an over­all pol­i­cy for what ap­provals should be re­quired,” she ex­plained.

Ac­cord­ing to the min­is­ter, re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions al­ready have the au­thor­i­ty to re­strict ac­cess to roads un­der their ju­ris­dic­tion.

The pol­i­cy will in­stead es­tab­lish min­i­mum stan­dards and stream­line the ap­proval process, en­sur­ing that es­sen­tial ser­vices are not dis­rupt­ed.

She said the frame­work will re­quire co­or­di­na­tion with pub­lic util­i­ties and ser­vice providers, in­clud­ing telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pa­nies, to guar­an­tee con­tin­ued ac­cess for main­te­nance, up­grades and emer­gency re­sponse.

“It will pro­vide a sys­tem of easy ap­provals so that the com­mu­ni­ty is not de­prived of ser­vices such as telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions or pub­lic util­i­ties,” Ameen added.

Con­sul­ta­tions have al­so in­volved re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, some of which have al­ready grant­ed ap­provals for gat­ed or re­strict­ed-ac­cess com­mu­ni­ties.

The com­mit­tee is now re­view­ing those cas­es to iden­ti­fy chal­lenges and best prac­tices.

“We are look­ing at what they would have grant­ed, what they en­coun­tered, chal­lenges, but we want it to be a pol­i­cy that is with­in the cur­rent le­gal frame­work,” she said.

Once com­plet­ed, the draft pol­i­cy will be sub­mit­ted to Cab­i­net for con­sid­er­a­tion.

Ameen pre­vi­ous­ly main­tained that the ini­tia­tive is part of the Gov­ern­ment’s broad­er crime-fight­ing strat­e­gy and re­ject­ed Op­po­si­tion claims that such a pol­i­cy would on­ly ben­e­fit wealthy com­mu­ni­ties, in­sist­ing it is de­signed to sup­port any com­mu­ni­ty seek­ing to im­prove its safe­ty.

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral MP Symon de No­bri­ga pre­vi­ous­ly as­sert­ed that the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to de­vel­op a na­tion­al pol­i­cy on gat­ed com­mu­ni­ties is a “po­lit­i­cal gim­mick.”