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WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 25 NOVEMBER 2015 • ISSUE 444 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.00 Newspaper post Further information please visit: www.christmasingozo.com or our facebook page Christmas in Gozo MINISTRY FOR GOZO CHRISTMAS IN GOZO 5th Dec 2015 till 3rd Jan 2016 www.visitgozo.com Gaming shop operators vent frustration over hold ups Industry up in arms over police inaction following spate of hold ups JURGEN BALZAN GAMING shop operators are con- cerned about the police's inability to break up what they perceive as an organised criminal gang behind a series of hold ups carried out on a number of outlets. Moreover, leaked information about measures taken to trace the perpetuators has enraged the op- erators. In recent months, the number of hold ups on gaming shops has risen at an alarming rate, forcing opera- tors to step up their security and take further measures to aid the police investigations. The latest robbery took place on Monday, when some €5,000 were stolen from a gaming shop in Naxx- ar, while last week two men were arrested over a hold-up in Mosta. One common denominator in all hold ups is that most were carried out by a lone hooded man wielding a weapon. One particular operator has suf- fered at least eight robberies in the space of five months. Questions sent to the police on how many hold ups have been carried out in 2015 have not been answered yet. On Friday, 18-year-old Justin Sci- cluna was charged with an armed robbery at an Izibet gaming shop a few metres away from his residence in Main Street, Mosta. However, his alleged accomplice, who was also arrested by police, has so far not been arraigned. Beyond this incongruence, operators are angry and frustrated at the leaked information on how the two men were arrested. Following the growing number of hold ups in recent months, opera- tors took their own precautions and inserted a tracking device inside money notes which would have en- abled the police to trace the perpe- trators and investigate the alleged criminal ring. However, this information was leaked to national broadcaster TVM with the enraged operators now having to come up with other measures to locate the criminals and possibly help the police in breaking up what they believe is an organised criminal gang behind the spate of hold ups. Farrugia presents AD proposals in Parliament THE government yesterday turned down independent MP Marlene Farrugia's request to legally bind itself to enhance people's quality of life when de- veloping land. In a parliamentary committee sitting debating one of three Bills for the proposed MEPA demerg- er, Farrugia presented Alternat- tiva Demokratika's proposals and recommended that a clause in the draft law be amended so as to ultimately allow eNGOs to take governments to court over perceived injustices in the envi- ronment. "The environment is part of our shared heritage, and we have to preserve it for future environ- ments," she said. "The only way to ensure that the MEPA demerger proves suc- cessful in quashing out abuses is to give the people added power to take action when they are dis- satisfied about the government's action, or lack thereof, in envi- ronmental matters," she said. "The government is being presented with the opportunity to show the public it is ready to walk the talk." Farrugia said that her amend- ments were presented on behalf of Green Party chairperson Ar- nold Cassola. In a statement issued yesterday, Cassola said Farrugia was being true to her pledge that she would be a voice in Parliament for the people. PAGE 4 PN launches basis for 2018 electoral programme GABRIEL SCHEMBRI THE Nationalist Party has pre- sented a 55-page long working document – An Economy for the People – on which the Opposition will base its political manifesto for the next general election. In an opening statement during a presentation of the document to the MCESD board, PN leader Si- mon Busuttil said he was "not at- tracted by an economy which is intended to transform the country into a playground for the rich but one in which knowledge and inno- vation are given equal or even more importance than personal wealth". The Opposition leader said that the motivating factor for pursuing an economy for the people was the idea to create an economy which is wired to serve the people and not to control their lives. "We do not sub- scribe to the school of thought that the State is the protagonist of the economy," he said. "The govern- ment's role is to enable and ensure fairness in enterprise." He described the document as a reflection of how the Nationalist Party is evolving into a vehicle that attains synergies, which will be de- livered to the people. "We are build- ing our strong economic legacy by putting the people, not statistics, at the centre of the political process." The Shadow Minister for the Economy, Claudio Grech, said the document, which took six months to draw up, was not a finite oper- ating plan, but a basis for concrete policies. This is not a visionary document, crystal-balling the future and in- terpreting macro forecasts," Grech said as he explained that the docu- ment aimed to state the 'how' of the PN going to lead the Maltese economy. The document presents a quote from the 2013 Apostolic Exhorta- tion Evangelii Gaudium, when Pope Francis said that while the earnings of a minority were growing expo- nentially, so was the gap between the rich and the poor. It includes a plan where the economy gears itself to address better the distribution of wealth created. PAGE 3 "I don't intend to transform the country into a playground for the rich" – Busuttil One gaming company sufferred eight hold ups in the space of five months PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD