Shas­tri Boodan

Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath has an­nounced plans to re­in­state cul­tur­al and re­li­gious events across state en­ter­pris­es.

Speak­ing on Sun­day dur­ing Ganesh Us­tav cel­e­bra­tions at the Cou­va South con­stituen­cy au­di­to­ri­um, Padarath con­firmed that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (TTEC) will re­sume its Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions in 2025.

“I don’t know why the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion took the ini­tia­tive to stop it, but as part of TTEC’s cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, I think in tan­dem with them hav­ing the man­date to be the elec­tric­i­ty com­pa­ny of the coun­try it would be very fit­ting to have the re­turn of the Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions at TTEC,” he said.

Padarath added that he has re­quest­ed all state boards to rein­tro­duce the ob­ser­vance of na­tion­al events as part of their cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, while keep­ing costs in mind. “In the past, what has hap­pened, the man­age­ment of these com­pa­nies has been very se­lec­tive in what they choose to cel­e­brate, and there­fore a di­verse coun­try like T&T, I be­lieve we have to rep­re­sent all faith and back­grounds,” he said.

He was speak­ing at Ganesh Us­tav cel­e­bra­tions host­ed by his of­fice which he said were pri­vate­ly fund­ed. “We have been do­ing a lot of fundrais­ers, we are work­ing with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty through Cou­va South, the coun­cil­lors as well as the mandirs as well as the cul­tur­al and re­li­gious groups. The mur­ti [was] do­nat­ed ear­li­er this year,” he said. He added that food was con­tributed by su­per­mar­kets, while a lo­cal fu­ner­al home spon­sored the parsad.

He al­so spoke of the sig­nif­i­cance of Lord Ganesh to him­self and to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Greet­ings were de­liv­ered by the In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er, Pradeep Singh Ra­jpuro­hit.

The mur­ti will de­part the Cou­va South Hall on Tues­day for the Ganesh Us­tav Foun­da­tion at Grove Park, Ota­heite. Cel­e­bra­tions will con­tin­ue from Au­gust 27 to Sep­tem­ber 6, cul­mi­nat­ing with the vis­ar­jan cer­e­mo­ny at sea.