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Claims of racism dur­ing yes­ter­day’s pro­ceed­ings of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee forced House Chair­man Jagdeo Singh to sus­pend the sit­ting, as tem­pers flared be­tween gov­ern­ment and op­po­si­tion mem­bers.

The con­fronta­tion arose dur­ing de­lib­er­a­tions on the Min­istry of Hous­ing’s bud­get al­lo­ca­tions.

The up­roar be­gan af­ter mem­bers of the op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of mar­gin­al­is­ing Port-of-Spain, al­leg­ing that al­lo­ca­tions pre­vi­ous­ly ear­marked for East Port-of-Spain had been re­moved.