Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment, Kennedy Swarats­ingh, says he has in­struct­ed the Ch­aguara­mas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty (CDA) to work with the Min­istry of Cul­ture to cre­ate spaces where fetes can be held. Swarats­ingh al­so holds the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the en­vi­ron­ment. He made the com­ments in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia at COP30 yes­ter­day in Belem, Brazil, a day af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­pand­ed her Gov­ern­ment’s clam­p­down on noise pol­lu­tion, or­der­ing an im­me­di­ate halt to fetes at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um and the Jean Pierre Com­plex ex­cept dur­ing the de­fined Car­ni­val win­dow.

Swarats­ingh said, “I have ac­tu­al­ly asked the chair of Cha­gara­mas to work with the Min­istry of Cul­ture to see if we can cre­ate some space, and I’m sure the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture is ex­plor­ing oth­er op­tions as well, be­cause the in­ten­tion is not to pun­ish any­body, but to find the right spaces where they can have the events un­fet­tered. It’s find­ing that bal­ance in that. I think that’s what the Prime Min­is­ter ex­pects of us, that we as min­is­ters will find ways in sup­port of the de­ci­sions that the Cab­i­net has ex­pressed and the Prime Min­is­ter ex­pressed.”

He said he is con­fi­dent the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture “is ful­ly em­pow­ered and equipped” to come up with some new strate­gies.