The Tas­sa As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TATT) has come out in sup­port of stricter noise pol­lu­tion con­trols. Pres­i­dent Dr Vi­jay Rai ad­mit­ted that the as­so­ci­a­tion has been re­ceiv­ing re­ports of tas­sa play­ers in­tim­i­dat­ing res­i­dents who com­plain about ex­ces­sive noise.

Rai said that while the as­so­ci­a­tion has urged play­ers to act re­spon­si­bly, many have no op­tion but to re­hearse in their com­mu­ni­ties. He ac­knowl­edged that tas­sa mu­sic can be over­whelm­ing for some res­i­dents and can dis­rupt chil­dren prepar­ing for ex­ams. For this rea­son, he is urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to out­fit com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres with sound­proof rooms to ease ten­sions.

“Noise pol­lu­tion is a killer. We sup­port curb­ing noise lev­els. Every MP should take the ini­tia­tive and cre­ate safe spaces for tas­sa play­ers,” Rai said.

He added that the Tas­sa As­so­ci­a­tion can­not fi­nance such fa­cil­i­ties and said some play­ers “want every­thing hand­ed to them.”

A 40-year-old Mara­bel­la woman claimed she re­peat­ed­ly asked po­lice for help to have the tas­sa band not be so loud, but in­stead claimed that she was threat­ened by band mem­bers. She al­leged she was not hap­py with the re­sponse by the po­lice. She did not pro­vide de­tails about when the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

Vice pres­i­dent of Cit­i­zens Against Noise Pol­lu­tion of T&T (CANPTT), Tama­ra Chatar, said com­plaints con­tin­ue to pour in about tas­sa, pan, and re­li­gious ac­tiv­i­ties. “It shows there’s no racial or re­li­gious tar­get­ing. Noise pol­lu­tion af­fects every­one,” she said.

Chatar blamed years of in­ac­tion by the po­lice ser­vice and the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty for pub­lic frus­tra­tion. “Some even laughed,” she claimed.

She added that res­i­dents are al­so re­port­ing con­stant bark­ing from ne­glect­ed an­i­mals. “This is an­i­mal cru­el­ty. These dogs aren’t fed, and they bark non­stop, dis­turb­ing work­ing peo­ple who are try­ing to rest,” she said.

—Shas­tri Boodan