Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Two Ram­leela groups from Cen­tral Trinidad say they are in dire straits while they await as­sis­tance they have ap­plied for from the Gov­ern­ment to help cov­er their bills.

Sun­dar Jookoo, pres­i­dent of the 109-year-old First Fe­lic­i­ty Ram­leela and Cul­tur­al Group, said his or­gan­i­sa­tion re­ceived $10,000 for 2023 to as­sist in cov­er­ing their $80,000 bud­get. He said things are worse this year.

He said, “This year’s cel­e­bra­tions are $120,000 be­cause we have to pay $36,000 to rent bleach­er stands for seat­ing from the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion through the Min­istry of Cul­ture.

“In 2023, they said the stands were un­avail­able. In 2020, they charged $6,000. They claim they gave us the wrong prices then, but we were pay­ing that for at least ten years,

“We are beg­ging Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchel to have some mer­cy on us be­cause of the state of the econ­o­my. We have asked the com­mu­ni­ty for help and all we hear from vil­lagers is the fact they have to pay prop­er­ty tax and they have not a cent to spare.”

Jookoo said play­ers were tak­ing mon­ey from their pock­ets and were still in the process of pe­ti­tion­ing the lo­cal busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

Jookoo said, “No­bel Lau­re­ate Derek Wal­cott wrote about the Ram­leela he saw in Fe­lic­i­ty and spoke about it when he re­ceived the No­bel Prize. VS Naipaul al­so at­tend­ed the Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tion host­ed by our or­gan­i­sa­tion.”

Mean­while, Khem­chan Sa­hadeo, head of the Pierre Road Ram­leela Com­mit­tee, said they too were yet to re­ceive their 2023 monies.

Sa­hadeo said the Pierre Road cel­e­bra­tions were cost­ing around $150,000. He said mem­bers of the or­gan­i­sa­tion had raised funds through the sale of food and con­tri­bu­tions from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

He said a bud­get had been sub­mit­ted to the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties. 

Speak­ing on the is­sue, Min­is­ter of Tourism Cul­ture and the Arts, Ran­dall Mitchell said Ram­leela groups who ap­plied for fund­ing from the state will have to wait a lit­tle longer.

He said there were cur­rent­ly six ap­pli­ca­tions that were re­ceived and they were go­ing through the min­istry’s ap­pli­ca­tion and ap­proval process.

Ram­leela at Pierre Road cul­mi­nates to­mor­row with the burn­ing of an ef­fi­gy of the de­mon king Rawan at 10 pm.