Shas­tri Boodan

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly's ex­ec­u­tive coun­cil gave the fi­nal ap­proval to hand over a par­cel of land at Sig­nal Hill for the con­struc­tion of a Hin­du Tem­ple on the sis­ter is­land. This an­nounce­ment was made by Orville Lon­don, the THA Chief Sec­re­tary, when he opened class­es in drum­ming, In­di­an dance and vo­cals at the Calder Hall Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Scar­bor­ough on Fri­day.

Lon­don said the THA was pleased to be part of the mul­ti-cul­tur­al syn­er­gies on the is­land. Lon­don said the an­nounce­ment came on?the very day that the THA cel­e­brat­ed its 29 an­niver­sary as an as­sem­bly. Rayan Ra­moutar, the pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Hin­du So­ci­ety (THS), said the or­ga­ni­za­tion was elat­ed and was hope­ful that the THS would get a deed from the THA by Jan­u­ary.

Ra­moutar said once a tem­ple was con­struct­ed the fa­cil­i­ty would be used not on­ly for re­li­gious pur­suits but for ed­u­ca­tion­al en­deav­ors "We are al­so plan­ning on do­ing class­es in Hin­di to break down any cul­tur­al bar­ri­ers we may en­counter in To­ba­go". Ra­moutar said the class­es at Calder Hall takes place on the first Fri­day of every month and are open to all To­bag­o­ni­ans. Malay Mishra, the In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er, com­mend­ed the THA and the THS for their joint ef­fort in ex­pand­ing In­di­an cul­ture on the is­land.