Two streets in Monte Grande, St Au­gus­tine, have been re­named af­ter promi­nent at­tor­ney Is­rael B Ra­jah-Khan, SC, by the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

This came af­ter Monte Grande res­i­dents pe­ti­tioned the TPRC on Sep­tem­ber 2023 to re­name Deenah Street to Is­rael B Khan Street and Gan­ga Street to Is­rael B Khan Ex­ten­sion Street, in recog­ni­tion of Khan’s “stel­lar con­tri­bu­tions to the de­vel­op­ment of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the rule of law in T&T over the past few decades.”

The res­o­lu­tion was unan­i­mous­ly ac­cept­ed by the TPRC on Feb­ru­ary 24 and gazetted on June 11, 2024. The un­veil­ing cer­e­mo­ny took place on Oc­to­ber 3 and was wit­nessed by sev­er­al cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil mem­bers, res­i­dents who pe­ti­tioned the cor­po­ra­tion, and Khan and his fam­i­ly.

Speak­ing at the un­veil­ing cer­e­mo­ny, Curepe/Pasea coun­cil­lor J Lynn Roop­nar­ine said the re­nam­ing of the streets was meant to ho­n­our Khan, as well as his par­ents and the vil­lagers, who were ex­treme­ly proud of his achieve­ments.

“It is in­spir­ing to see a man who wears many caps to have the recog­ni­tion for his many years of ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to his coun­try. He is the most dec­o­rat­ed ac­tive ad­vo­cate at the Crim­i­nal Bar in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Roop­nar­ine said, adding the ap­pli­ca­tion was unan­i­mous­ly ac­cept­ed and ap­proved by the TPRC’s Street Nam­ing Com­mit­tee.

Speak­ing at a sub­se­quent lun­cheon at Wings Restau­rant in Pasea Vil­lage, Khan’s child­hood friend, Ra­goonath Cha­boo, said he had known Khan for over 70 years.

He said he worked with Khan when he (Khan) was an al­der­man in the very cor­po­ra­tion, then known as the East St George Coun­ty Coun­cil from 1987-1991.

Re­call­ing that Khan served the coun­cil and burgess­es with dis­tinc­tion, Cha­boo said, “He is a kind-heart­ed and gen­er­ous man. Not many of you will know that he gave his en­tire month­ly stipends to the needy peo­ple of East St George dis­trict for the four years he served as al­der­man. Not a black cent was tak­en for his ser­vice in the coun­cil.”

He added, “And how many of you are aware that in re­cent times, he has for­gone tak­ing rental fees to the tune of over $540,000 from Pan Trin­ba­go for the rental of his Port-of-Spain build­ing when Pan Trin­ba­go was in fi­nan­cial trou­ble. And through­out his life, he gave his time, mon­ey and en­er­gy to the peo­ple who were in need. My child­hood friend is a true pa­tri­ot of this coun­try.”

In brief re­marks, Khan said he was hum­bled that the vil­lagers and their off­spring in the com­mu­ni­ty in which he grew up recog­nised and cel­e­brat­ed his achieve­ments.

“My par­ents, now de­ceased, would have been elat­ed and proud of the new names of the streets—Is­rael B Khan and Is­rael B Khan Ex­ten­sion,” Khan said.

“I note that the hous­es in this area and Pasea Vil­lage are now con­struct­ed of bricks, with run­ning wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty. The hous­es which sur­round­ed me in my child­hood years were all made of mud, with dirt floors, thatched roofs, out­side la­trine pits, no run­ning wa­ter or elec­tric­i­ty and both Monte Grande Vil­lage and Pasea have pro­duced many doc­tors, lawyers, en­gi­neers, teach­ers, builders and busi­ness­men and women.

“We have come a long way. We have done ex­ceed­ing­ly well, so let’s cel­e­brate, my achieve­ments are the vil­lage achieve­ments. The vil­lage of Monte Grande and Pasea, to­geth­er with my par­ents and two grand­moth­ers, have mould­ed me in­to the per­son I am to­day and I am grate­ful to all.”

Monte Grande vil­lage is lo­cat­ed about two miles east of UWI and bor­ders on Pasea Vil­lage, Tu­na­puna, and the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way on the south.

Khan, who was award­ed “silk” in 2000, has been prac­tic­ing at the Crim­i­nal Bar for the past 45 years, has been a tu­tor at the Hugh Wood­ing Law School for the past 36 years and is cur­rent­ly pres­i­dent of the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion.

Re­cent­ly, Khan was al­so ap­point­ed by the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court to its list of ad­vo­cates at The Hague, Nether­lands.