Shas­tri Boodan

Har­ry­lal Sukhdeo used the monies he earned from the sales of boiled chan­na to pur­chase in­ter­net de­vices for three rur­al schools.

Sukhdeo, who op­er­ates Fat’s Restau­rant and Bar at Palmiste Vil­lage, Long­denville, said while the bar busi­ness was not do­ing well be­cause of COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions, his sales of boiled chan­na con­tin­ued to re­main prof­itable.

Yes­ter­day, he do­nat­ed in­ter­net de­vices to stu­dents of the Palmiste Gov­ern­ment School. Sukhdeo said he has grand­chil­dren at­tend­ing the Todds Road RC School and the Ca­paro RC School. He said teach­ers of these schools in­di­cat­ed to him that quite a num­ber of stu­dents did not have any in­ter­net de­vices.

Sukhdeo said he has al­ways con­tributed to the de­vel­op­ment of the rur­al com­mu­ni­ties that sup­port his busi­ness.

He gave de­vices to Ca­paro and Todds Road and to Palmiste. The lat­ter he at­tend­ed as a child in the 1960s. Sukhdeo al­so made an ap­peal to busi­ness­es in the com­mu­ni­ty to as­sist needy chil­dren. The com­mu­ni­ties that are lo­cat­ed along the Bras­so Ca­paro Val­ley Road are not blessed with a pletho­ra of big busi­ness­es to as­sist.

These com­mu­ni­ties are ser­viced by small shops, gro­ceries and bars. The clo­sure of Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed put a ma­jor­i­ty of the work­force on the bread­line, many have since had to de­pend on Cepep, URP and oth­er forms of me­nial labour for em­ploy­ment.

Nisha Ram­jat­tan, the par­ent of Kar­ish­ma Har­ri­lal, said she was grate­ful for the in­ter­net de­vices. Ram­jat­tan said her fam­i­ly is with­out an in­ter­net con­nec­tion and she has to cough up $100 for a 5-day da­ta plan to gen­er­ate a mo­bile hotspot us­ing her smart­phone.

Ram­jat­tan a res­i­dent of Thomp­son Road, Palmiste said Kar­ish­ma, her daugh­ter, who is in Stan­dard 5 and was the school’s top ath­lete for 2019 and 2020, is one of many stu­dents in the com­mu­ni­ty need of an in­ter­net de­vice.