Shas­tri Boodan

Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tions re­turn this week­end to many recre­ation grounds across Trinidad.

How­ev­er, a lack of fund­ing from both the pri­vate sec­tor and the State may stall or scale down cel­e­bra­tions.

Pres­i­dent of the First Fe­lic­i­ty Ram­leela and Cul­tur­al Group and the pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer of the Na­tion­al Ram­leela Coun­cil, Sun­dar Jookoo, claims small­er groups are get­ting pres­sure for fund­ing be­cause of Gov­ern­ment bu­reau­cra­cy.

Say­ing the event is cel­e­brat­ed by 250,000-plus peo­ple, Jookoo told the T&T Guardian, “The Na­tion­al Ram­leela Coun­cil have been try­ing to­geth­er with all the groups to seek fund­ing to host their cel­e­bra­tions. We have over 35 mem­bers (groups). Every year we get a dif­fer­ent form to ap­ply for fund­ing and dif­fer­ent process­es to fol­low. We, the gov­ern­ing body, would col­lect all the da­ta for the oth­er groups, which would be their bud­get and quotes and send it in. This year, they are ask­ing each group to fill a form and send it in again, al­though we had gath­ered all the in­for­ma­tion and sub­mit­ted it un­der one body, which is the Na­tion­al Ram­leela Coun­cil. They now want each body to now sub­mit their bud­get both to the Cul­ture Di­vi­sion and again to the Tourism Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Tourism Cul­ture and the Arts.”

Jookoo said some of the small­er groups are strug­gling to meet this cri­te­ria.

He said, “They don’t even have a reg­is­tra­tion as a NGO. How­ev­er, the Na­tion­al Ram­leela Coun­cil is reg­is­tered and that is why we would sub­mit their bud­get on be­half of them, so they would not have to go through this hard­ship. It’s just as the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion would col­lect and dis­trib­ute even­ly with prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion.”

Jookoo said the event al­so at­tracts a num­ber of stu­dents and for­eign­ers. He re­mind­ed that No­bel lau­re­ates Derek Wal­cott and VS Naipaul al­so vis­it­ed Fe­lic­i­ty and wrote about the mas­sive out­door the­atre that is Ram­leela.

He said cel­e­bra­tions start on Fri­day Sep­tem­ber 30 at 6 pm the Green Park Recre­ation Ground at Bound­ary Street, Fe­lic­i­ty.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed on Tues­day, the ef­fi­gy of Rawan was be­ing con­struct­ed and the stage and fence in the grassy sa­van­nah was be­ing erect­ed.

Jookoo said the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion has promised help to cut the grass and spruce up the place for the fes­ti­val.