Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

UNC Coun­cil­lor Anil Bali­ram (Freeport/Chick­land) was in crit­i­cal con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day fol­low­ing a sus­pect­ed sui­cide at­tempt.

Bali­ram, a vet­er­an coun­cil­lor in the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion who won the Freeport–Chick­land seat in the 2010 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions, re­mained on life sup­port yes­ter­day evening af­ter un­der­go­ing CT scans and oth­er emer­gency treat­ment, ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials.

UNC par­ty sources said Emer­gency Health Ser­vices per­son­nel were called to his Ex­change home ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter he was found un­re­spon­sive.

A passer­by re­spond­ed to dis­tress calls from with­in the home af­ter a rel­a­tive raised the alarm and as­sist­ed in at­tend­ing to Bali­ram be­fore emer­gency re­spon­ders ar­rived.

Cou­va po­lice and Emer­gency Health Ser­vices per­son­nel ar­rived at the scene and be­gan CPR. Of­fi­cials said Bali­ram had a pulse at the time.

He was sta­bilised and rushed to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for fur­ther emer­gency care.

Rel­a­tives, in­clud­ing his wife Van­ny Bali­ram and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers, gath­ered at the hos­pi­tal dur­ing the day. Con­stituen­cy staff and cur­rent and for­mer lo­cal gov­ern­ment col­leagues al­so vis­it­ed, await­ing up­dates on his con­di­tion.

Around 2 pm yes­ter­day, Mrs Bali­ram told Guardian Me­dia that her hus­band was be­ing tak­en to the In­ten­sive Care Unit but did not pro­vide fur­ther de­tails.

Ca­roni Cen­tral MP David Lee said he and oth­ers were hop­ing for Bali­ram’s re­cov­ery.

“My prayers go out to him and his fam­i­ly,” Lee said.

He said he was “in shock,” not­ing that he had seen Bali­ram as re­cent­ly as last Fri­day dur­ing prepa­ra­tions for up­com­ing In­di­an Ar­rival Day ac­tiv­i­ties.

Lee al­so re­called work­ing with Bali­ram on com­mu­ni­ty im­prove­ment ef­forts, in­clud­ing work along Las Jobas Road in Chick­land.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kadi­jah Ameen said she had been in­formed of the sit­u­a­tion and that col­leagues across the sys­tem were keep­ing Bali­ram in their thoughts.

“Anil Bali­ram is one of the UNC’s longest-serv­ing coun­cil­lors. Up­on re­ceiv­ing news of the in­ci­dent, many coun­cil­lors ex­pressed shock and dis­be­lief. His col­leagues at the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Cor­po­ra­tion are par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­tressed, and every­one is pray­ing for his re­cov­ery,” she said.

Bali­ram’s con­di­tion was be­ing close­ly mon­i­tored as col­leagues and sup­port­ers gath­ered at the hos­pi­tal through­out the day.

The de­vel­op­ment came as fam­i­ly mem­bers had re­port­ed­ly been prepar­ing for a trip Down the Is­lands, sources said.

Since 2010, Bali­ram has served un­der mul­ti­ple UNC MPs. In that year’s Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions, he was among the first can­di­dates in to be de­clared elect­ed un­op­posed af­ter a PNM nom­i­na­tion was in­val­i­dat­ed.

He was known for his ac­tive role in his con­stituen­cy, par­tic­u­lar­ly on in­fra­struc­ture and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment is­sues. In 2021, he gained at­ten­tion for su­per­vis­ing vol­un­teer pot­hole re­pairs in Gran Cou­va dur­ing heavy rain­fall, say­ing he was com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing safer roads for res­i­dents.

Se­nior Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro coun­cil­lor Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Ma­haraj de­scribed him as a ded­i­cat­ed col­league.

“He works hard and long for his burgess­es and goes out of his way to help peo­ple, even out­side his elec­toral area,” Ma­haraj said.

“He is hum­ble and well loved. Anil al­ways recog­nis­es young peo­ple do­ing well and re­wards them. He al­so has a re­mark­able mem­o­ry—you can ask him any­thing and he will re­call what took place, when and how.”

UNC Ca­roni Cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive chair­man Dhar­men­dra Nar­ine al­so de­scribed him as a com­mit­ted par­ty work­er.

“He is a true work­er—solid­ly com­mit­ted to his burgess­es. We are anx­ious and wor­ried and we pray deeply for him,” he said.

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ryan Ram­per­sad, speak­ing from abroad, said he was await­ing up­dates on Bali­ram’s con­di­tion.