SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Cou­va Car­ni­val may just turn out to be the “Moth­er-in-law of all Car­ni­vals” un­less the com­mit­tee gets fund­ing from the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion.

This an­nounce­ment was made last night by Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj, pres­i­dent of the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee, when the com­mit­tee launched 2K23 cel­e­bra­tions at the Cou­va Pub­lic Car Park.

He said the NCC is re­main­ing silent about fund­ing.

“This year’s cel­e­bra­tions in T&T are termed to be the Moth­er of all Car­ni­vals and we start­ed prepa­ra­tions to­wards the Moth­er of all Car­ni­vals, but up to this day, we have not heard from the fa­ther who is re­spon­si­ble for Car­ni­val in T&T.  But we con­tin­ue plan­ning be­cause the show must go on,” Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Ma­haraj said.

He added: “I just want the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to know for the past there years, [the cost of] every­thing has in­creased al­most 100 per­cent and what is hap­pen­ing—with­out com­mu­ni­ca­tion of what is hap­pen­ing with the fund­ing for Re­gion­al Car­ni­val, with­out no com­mu­ni­ca­tions at all—our com­mit­tee mem­bers feel as if we are cel­e­brat­ing the moth­er-in-law of all car­ni­vals 2K23.”

The Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee boss said the peo­ple of Cou­va “are cul­ture lov­ing peo­ple”, and as­sert­ed, “we con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate.”

The fol­low­ing is the pro­posed Cal­en­dar of Events for Cou­va’s Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions:

●   Fri­day 17 Feb­ru­ary – Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion

●   Sat­ur­day 18 Feb­ru­ary – Miss Cen­tral Trinidad Queen Pageant

●   Sun­day 19 Feb­ru­ary – Kid­dies Car­ni­val

●   Mon­day 20 Feb­ru­ary – J’ou­vert and Mon­day Night Mas

●   Tues­day 21 Feb­ru­ary – Pa­rade of the Bands.