AKASH SAMA­ROO

Cu­mu­to / Tamana Coun­cil­lor Anil Ma­haraj has re­signed from a po­si­tion with­in the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, but it is not the res­ig­na­tion his col­leagues on the op­pos­ing side are call­ing for.

In fact, Ma­haraj, who was charged with mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice, on­ly ten­dered his res­ig­na­tion as Chair­man of the Fi­nance, Plan­ning and Al­lo­ca­tion of Re­sources Com­mit­tee. He has not of­fered to leave his post as Coun­cil­lor for Cu­mu­to / Tamana as was de­mand­ed by PNM Coun­cil­lors yes­ter­day. Nor has his par­ty asked for his res­ig­na­tion.

That's ac­cord­ing to UNC PRO Dr Kirk Meighoo, who said that Coun­cil­lor Ma­haraj in­tends to ro­bust­ly de­fend these al­le­ga­tions and vin­di­cate his rep­u­ta­tion. When pressed as to why the UNC has not asked Ma­haraj to step down, Dr Meighoo said the par­ty is re­view­ing past in­ci­dents in­volv­ing PNM elect­ed of­fi­cials and crim­i­nal charges.

“The par­ty is re­view­ing past in­ci­dents where coun­cil­lor Ter­ry Ron­don had been charged and ap­peared be­fore the San­gre Grande Mag­is­trates' Court fac­ing with three counts of in­de­cent as­sault against a fe­male sol­dier as­signed to the Unit­ed States Air Force, and his sub­se­quent el­e­va­tion by the PNM to Chair­man of the Cor­po­ra­tion,” Meighoo told Guardian Me­dia.

Meighoo added that UNC Coun­cil­lors have an­nounced their full sup­port of Ma­haraj and have ex­pressed con­fi­dence in his in­no­cence based on his char­ac­ter.