SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion opened a con­do­lence book at its Cum­ber­batch Street head­quar­ters yes­ter­day fol­low­ing the death of for­mer Pres­i­dent Sir El­lis Clarke. Gopaul Bood­han, deputy Ch­agua­nas may­or, said he was deeply sad­dened by the news of Sir El­lis' death. He de­scribed the for­mer pres­i­dent as an ex­cel­lent states­man who lived a life of pa­tri­o­tism to T&T. He said: "He was a gi­ant among those who have con­tributed to the build­ing of T&T and served be­yond the call of du­ty. He was a man of na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al stature."

Bood­han re­called his ex­pe­ri­ence of meet­ing Sir El­lis when he worked as a re­porter with a dai­ly news­pa­per in 1979. Bood­han said he greet­ed Clarke when he cov­ered horse rac­ing at San­ta Rosa Park. "He was very ap­proach­able and ac­knowl­edged every­one, re­gard­less of their sta­tus." Bood­han said Ch­agua­nas burgess­es have made pos­i­tive com­ments about the life of Sir El­lis when they signed the book.