Both the Up­per and Low­er Hous­es of Par­lia­ment will to­day meet at the same time in their re­spec­tive Red House cham­bers for sep­a­rate work­ing ses­sions.

This comes af­ter yes­ter­day’s heat­ed Low­er House sit­ting on the To­ba­go Self-Gov­ern­ment bills, which end­ed in chaos af­ter all Op­po­si­tion MPs walked out dur­ing de­bate.

Yes­ter­day the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives de­bat­ed a mo­tion on a re­port of a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee which ex­am­ined the Con­sti­tu­tion Amend­ment Bill (To­ba­go Self-Gov­ern­ment) bill and a com­pan­ion bill for To­ba­go is­land Gov­ern­ment process­es.

The bills, which pro­voked heat­ed and pas­sion­ate de­bate from both sides of the bench yes­ter­day and Mon­day, saw Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley emerge to wind up de­bate with a 60-minute ad­dress.

Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the House and the mover of the mo­tion Camille Robin­son-Reg­is said that giv­en the im­por­tance of the mat­ter, she ced­ed her time - and pro­posed al­low­ing the Prime Min­is­ter an­oth­er 60 min­utes of ex­tend­ed time.

It was this de­ci­sion that elicit­ed a swift re­sponse from Op­po­si­tion and Cou­va South MP Rudy In­dars­ingh who sought clar­i­fi­ca­tion, stat­ing there had been no agree­ment with the Op­po­si­tion for any ex­ten­sion.

When he protest­ed House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George asked him to be seat­ed. In­dars­ingh con­tin­ued protest­ing as there was no agree­ment on the ex­ten­sion is­sue, with An­nisette- George re­quest­ing that he halt.

An­nisette-George asked him to stand and apol­o­gise. If he didn’t, she said he could pur­sue “an­oth­er op­tion” so she would not have to do what she had to.

“Apol­o­gise for what?!!” In­dars­ingh queried, “There was no agree­ment on ex­ten­sion (of speak­ing time) and the leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness is very aware of this!”

But the House Speak­er again called on In­dars­ingh to apol­o­gise for his out­burst.

In­dars­ingh’s Op­po­si­tion col­league Cou­va North MP Ravi Rati­ram in­ter­ject­ed, but An­nisette-George, point­ing her fin­ger at him, rep­ri­mand­ed Rati­ram, “I don’t recog­nise you! I do not recog­nise you and I don’t want any­body as­sist­ing me!’’

In­dars­ingh apol­o­gised, adding “But...”

The House Speak­er stopped him in his tracks, “That’s it! I’m pre­pared to take your apol­o­gy but if you want to go on you have an op­tion.”

She then grant­ed the Prime Min­is­ter the ex­tra speak­ing time.

It was then the Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was heard ob­ject­ing to the ex­tra time. Mo­ments lat­er, the en­tire Op­po­si­tion bench, with Per­sad-Bisses­sar in front, walked out.

But the Prime Min­is­ter con­tin­ued his con­tri­bu­tion.

PM- For­mer Op­po­si­tion MP praised bills

Dr Row­ley point­ed out that the UNC’s po­lit­i­cal leader did not at­tend the de­bate and had on­ly shown up im­me­di­ate­ly be­fore the walk­out.

Row­ley al­so trounced those op­pos­ing some por­tions of the claus­es of the bills or re­quest­ing ad­di­tion­al time for con­sul­ta­tion be­fore the bills went for­ward.

He said con­sul­ta­tion be­gan many years ago “in every vil­lage in To­ba­go.”

Row­ley list­ed all the bills the Op­po­si­tion did not sup­port in­clud­ing the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance geared to­wards pre­vent­ing the spread of COVID-19.

He tore in­to To­bag­o­ni­ans like Ho­choy Charles, Far­ley Au­gus­tine, Dr Vanus James, Dr Win­ford James, Stan­ley Beard, and De­bra Moore -Mig­gins, whom the UNC had quot­ed, say­ing those To­bag­o­ni­ans are the PNM’s po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents. He said their views did not rep­re­sent the ma­jor­i­ty of To­bag­o­ni­ans.

He al­so said many who op­posed the bill had not even read it.

Speak­ing about the JSC re­port, Row­ley said the claus­es did not rep­re­sent on­ly the views of the PNM as he stressed it is “not a PNM re­port.” He re­mind­ed that some JSC mem­bers came from the Op­po­si­tion.

He quot­ed for­mer JSC mem­ber and for­mer Op­po­si­tion MP Ra­mona Ram­di­al’s com­ments on the bills.

“Based on my ex­pe­ri­ence and the process these (au­ton­o­my) bills un­der­went, a very in­tense and good job was done by the Par­lia­ment in con­sid­er­ing every as­pect of self-gov­ern­ment with­out los­ing the fun­da­men­tals of the uni­tary state that is Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he quot­ed Ram­di­al as say­ing.

Ad­dress­ing To­ba­go’s youths di­rect­ly, Row­ley said one of the claus­es in the re­port al­lowed them to work, as pub­lic ser­vants, in Trinidad or To­ba­go.

Af­ter the Prime Min­is­ter closed his con­tri­bu­tion, Gov­ern­ment MPs in the cham­ber went in­to the com­mit­tee stage to ex­am­ine claus­es in the re­port.

They an­nounced progress was made and sought leave for the rest to be done at an­oth­er sit­ting - 10.30 am to­day.