Shas­tri Boodan

Vice pres­i­dent of the Tas­sa As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (TATT) Wen­dell Ever­s­ley com­plained bit­ter­ly yes­ter­day about th lack of sup­port from state agen­cies and the pri­vate sec­tor for the first ever Schools Na­tion­al Tas­sara­ma Com­pe­ti­tion.

“When I look at the pro­gramme, and when I look to see who the spon­sors are con­tribut­ing, I shake my head and tears al­most come out of my eyes to know that this coun­try is filthy rich and we treat our cul­ture with scorn,” he said in an ad­dress be­fore the start of the com­pe­ti­tion at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas.

“This morn­ing I want to make a plea to Her­itage (Pe­tro­le­um), Paria Fu­els, I want to make a plea to the Na­tion­al Lot­tery Board, I want to make a plea to B-mo­bile, I want to make a plea to Dig­i­cel, be­cause at the end of the day mil­lions of dol­lars are be­ing pumped in­to these state en­ter­pris­es.

“How come you dis­re­spect­ing the cul­ture? How come you dis­re­spect­ing the tas­sa? To­day I feel re­al­ly hurt.”

Ever­s­ley said he want­ed the gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate T&T to do their part to sup­port the growth of the coun­try’s cul­ture.

Na­pari­ma Col­lege San Fer­nan­do won the Sec­ondary Schools cat­e­go­ry of the com­pe­ti­tion. Plac­ing sec­ond and third re­spec­tive­ly were Mara­bel­la North Sec­ondary and Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege Ch­agua­nas.

The Av­o­cat (APS) Vedic Pri­ma­ry, the on­ly pri­ma­ry school to par­tic­i­pate, was judged Most Out­stand­ing Band.

Win­ners will share a to­tal purse of $50,000. Prizes are ex­pect­ed to be dis­trib­uted next month.