Grow­ing dis­sat­is­fac­tion with­in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil for In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) has led to calls from with­in its board for pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo to step down, amid ac­cu­sa­tions that his han­dling of re­cent con­tro­ver­sies has dam­aged the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s rep­u­ta­tion and ex­posed di­rec­tors to per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al con­se­quences.

Two re­li­gious lead­ers are sound­ing the alarm over in­creas­ing­ly hos­tile po­lit­i­cal rhetoric, call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les to tem­per their lan­guage be­fore racial un­der­tones and per­son­al at­tacks deep­en di­vi­sions in the coun­try.

A Cou­va spa be­came the scene of a dou­ble mur­der yes­ter­day morn­ing when a masked gun­man shot dead a cus­tomer and the busi­ness own­er in front of oth­er cus­tomers and em­ploy­ees be­fore flee­ing on a mo­tor­cy­cle.

The Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce has con­demned the mur­der of a busi­ness­woman and a cus­tomer in the Cou­va area, warn­ing that crime and vi­o­lence pose a se­ri­ous threat to the safe­ty of cit­i­zens and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

At­tor­ney Tara­dath Singh, who sur­vived a mur­der at­tempt out­side his Ch­agua­nas home last month, was shot dead on Tues­day, af­ter warn­ings from friends to avoid pre­dictable move­ments and be more cau­tious about his sur­round­ings.

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette and Steel Work­ers’ Union of T&T (SWUTT) pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Bai­ley have re­butted Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s claim that unions march “on­ly” when an East In­di­an prime min­is­ter is in of­fice, point­ing out that unions have marched on is­sues through­out the tenure of all prime min­is­ters and gov­ern­ments.

De­fend­ing cham­pi­on Nicole Thomas Clarke be­came the voice for To­ba­go on Tues­day, as she made an un­flinch­ing de­mand for the is­land to be shown re­spect.

Al­though six men were ar­rest­ed and ques­tioned in con­nec­tion with last Sat­ur­day’s mil­lion-dol­lar ar­son at­tack at the TSTT com­pound in Laven­tille, po­lice are yet to lay any charges against any of them.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has be­gun train­ing of­fi­cers who will take part in op­er­a­tions un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, as well as those who will lead teams when the act comes in­to ef­fect.

At­tor­ney, in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions spe­cial­ist and for­mer Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Clyde Weath­er­head says the Gov­ern­ment can­not uni­lat­er­al­ly dis­burse the pro­posed 40 per cent cash com­po­nent of pub­lic ser­vants’ wage ar­rears with­out an agree­ment with the union.

While res­i­dents of Wel­come Road, Cunu­pia, can fi­nal­ly en­joy a smooth dri­ve to and from their homes af­ter years of dust and pot­holes, the min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for road re­pairs says oth­er com­mu­ni­ties will have to be pa­tient.

Na­tion­al 4-H Coun­cil pres­i­dent Natasha Lee has en­cour­aged young peo­ple to em­brace agri­cul­ture, food se­cu­ri­ty and sus­tain­able prac­tices as the or­gan­i­sa­tion con­tin­ues to pro­mote school and com­mu­ni­ty gar­den­ing.